ALEXANDER ANDERSON (1775 - 1870) WOOD ENGRAVER AND ILLUSTRATOR AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY.
[Anderson, Alexander]: Pomeroy, Jane R.:
[New Castle & Worcester]: Oak Knoll Press / American Antiquarian Society, 2005. Three volumes. Quarto. Heavily illustrated. Custom bound by hand by Gray Parrot in handsome quarter green morocco with marbled paper side-panels and morocco fore-edges, spines gilt extra, with contrasting gilt morocco labels. The whole enclosed in a matching green cloth covered clamshell box, with gilt morocco labels. First edition. This special binding is not an edition binding, but was commissioned specifically by the original owner of the set. "This three volume, comprehensive bibliography focuses on the important American wood engraver, Alexander Anderson; 1775-1870. The author has selected over 1,000 of Anderson's engravings to illustrate this major bibliography. This work begins with a well written and researched biography on Anderson's life. There are over 2,322 entries. Alexander Anderson was recognized by the first decades of the nineteenth century as this country's preeminent illustrator. Called the father of wood engraving in America and one of the masters of American Wood engraving, his prodigious work filled publications of every kind, separate prints, almanacs, fiction, travel, children's books, poetry, Bibles, religious tracts, medical texts, and broadsides. He is noted for his warm and often slyly humorous depictions of children in the large total of juvenile publications that he illustrated. The huge expansion of wood engravers and illustration that followed Anderson owed a debt to his skill and universally acclaimed artistic sense. He set a standard for successors who worked in the medium he had introduced. This study names and analyzes the publications where Anderson's work can be found. There are three indexes provided, one for authors and titles, a second for printers, publishers and booksellers, and a third for artists and engravers. Libraries, museums, book collectors and dealers, and all those interested in graphic arts will be able to identify Anderson's work and add to the history of American nineteenth-century book illustration. No understanding of American illustration is complete without an examination of Anderson's appealing and masterly engravings" - Publisher's blurb. Shipping significantly extra.
(Item ID: WRCLIT60824) $2,000.00