Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - October - 2010 Issue
Fore-Edge Paintings from Jeff Weber Rare Books
Concert hall panorama from Clare Brooksbank.
Item 44 features the work of one of America's most notable contemporary fore-edge artists, Vera Dutter. The book is Poems of Felicia Hamans, an 1865 edition, but the image was painted in 1957. It is based on Antoine Watteau's painting of Elysian Fields. $1,900.
For those who appreciate double the artistic effort, item 64 is a painted copy of Sir Walter Scott's The Lay of the Last Minstrel, a 16th edition published in 1823 (this must have been a popular poem). It possesses a double fore-edge painting, that is, an edge that displays two separate paintings, depending upon which way the pages are fanned. One is of Loch Levan, the other of High Street in Edinburgh. $4,500.
Item 4 is Sammlung auserlesener Gesangstucke mit Begleitung des Pianoforte, two volumes circa 1835-40. It translates to a collection of vocal pieces with piano accompaniment. It is appropriate for the two magnificent paintings, each surrounding all three sides of a volume. Clare Brooksbank is a present-day artist, though the volumes are old. Her work is exceptional. These paintings depict views of a concert hall, with portraits of great musicians, such as Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Bach, Hayden and Tchaikovsky, superimposed on the scene. $2,000.
Jeff Weber Rare Books may be reached at 323-344-9332 or weberbks@pacbell.net.
