Figure prints of Japan

Sydney : Beacon Press, 1948. Large quarto (450 mm tall), white vellum over floral decorated silk covered boards, decorated endpapers, 54pp. On hand-made paper with numerous tipped-in Japanese woodcuts, offsetting from glue as usual, bookplate to preliminary blank. Limited to 100 copies, this one of the 47 Special De-Luxe Editions, signed by the author, this copy out of series. Sydney based private press publisher P. Neville Barnett’s legacy is defined by his two great passions – Australian bookplates and the woodblock prints of Japan. In this large volume, the rarest title out of the handful Barnett published on the subject, he discusses the aesthetic of the Japanese figurative woodblock, a bold topic in the wake of Australia’s involvement in the war. Barnett typically issued his books in three versions – Author’s Presentation, Special Deluxe and Standard Deluxe, however the last phrase is always more deluxe than standard in its quality. Six copies recorded in Australian institutions.