Sculpture of Rayner Hoff

With text by the Rt. Hon. the Earl Beauchamp, K.G., K.C.M.G., Howard Ashton, E.C. Temple Smith and W. Bede Dalley. Sydney : Sunnybrook Press, 1934. Quarto, illustrated cloth, dustjacket (very slight edge wear, a fine copy), pp. 113; [8]. Limited to 100 copies, signed by all contributors, the artist and publisher, with an original signed linocut by Rayner Hoff tipped-in. The fourth book from the press. Rare.

Exhibition history (another copy) : People, print & paper : a catalogue of a travelling exhibition celebrating the books of Australia, 1788-1988. Canberra : National Library of Australia, 1988.

The entry for this book is as follows:

Hoff, Rayner, 1894-1937. Sculpture of Rayner Hoff.
Sydney: Sunnybrook Press, 1934.
Perhaps the finest book on an Australian sculptor, the fourth book of Earnest Shea’s private press. The forty-nine plates are a rare example in Aus- tralia of collotype printing. The collotype process is perhaps the most satisfactory method of repro- ducing both monochrome and colour in fine detail. Printing is done from a glass plate prepared by printing a negative on a gelatine film containing dichromate. Although the technology needed is not particularly elaborate, it is a slow and costly method, more demanding of the printer’s skill than any other process.

Provenance :

Bernard Gore Brett, his armorial bookplate to front pastedown, Christie’s clip loosely enclosed, with a typed note from Brett regarding a medal designed by Hoff.