World Pictures (deluxe edition, with original signed watercolour)

London : Adam & Charles Black, 1902. Quarto, gilt-lettered decorated cloth over bevelled boards (spine ruled, light wear), top edge gilt, others uncut, pp. x; 332, illustrated with 100 colour plates with captioned tissue guards, a very good copy. The edition de luxe, limited to 500 numbered copies printed on hand-made paper. This is copy number 4, the first 50 copies contained an original watercolour of a Dutch fisherman, being a study for the frontispiece illustration.

One of only 50 copies from the edition of 500, with an original watercolour bound in, signed by the artist.

A fine illustrated work by Adelaide-born artist Mortimer Menpes, with text written by his daughter Dorothy Whistler Menpes. Mortimer Menpes moved to England at the age of twenty where he would enjoy a successful career in painting and etching. In 1880 he embarked on a sketching tour of Brittany, where he befriended James MacNeil Whistler, becoming his pupil and close associate, and learning the art of etching from the master. Menpes became a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers (RE) in 1881, Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) in 1885, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI) in 1897 and Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI) in 1899, and, amongst other achievements, was also godfather to Oscar Wilde’s son Vyvyan.

A stunning book documenting the people of England, Holland, France, Normandy, Brittany, Switzerland, Italy, Sicily, Spain, Morocco, Turkey, Greece, Palestine, Egypt, South Africa, India, Cashmere (Kashmir), Burma, China, Japan and Mexico.