Antique Thomas Gainsborough R.A. Fletcher 1904 Prize Leather Binding
Antique Thomas Gainsborough R.A. Fletcher 1904 Prize Leather Binding
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Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. by A. E. Fletcher, 1904, bound to special order in full burgundy morocco for The Grammar School, Coleshill, and awarded as a prize to C. F. Williamson for Manual Work in July 1923, signed by the Head Master Somerset Bateman. The school was founded in 1520, its crest stamped in gilt on the front board, and that date and motto sit there still, sharp against the plum leather. Fletcher's biography moves through Gainsborough's life from his Suffolk origins through Ipswich, Bath, and London with eleven chapters and a full set of twenty photogravure plates, including "The Blue Boy," "The Painter's Daughters," and "The Parish Clerk," plus a photogravure frontispiece after Gainsborough's self-portrait from the collection of C. Fairfax Murray. The Walter Scott Publishing Company produced this series in superior leather bindings to special order only, advertised separately from the standard cloth trade issue, which is what you have here.
The binding is the story here and it is in genuinely good condition for over a century of age. The full burgundy morocco is clean and supple, the gilt tooling on the spine compartments remains legible and bright, and the rope-twist border to the boards is intact. The school crest on the front board is sharp. Marbled endpapers are present and sound. The prize bookplate is affixed cleanly to the front pastedown, the inscription and headmaster's signature clear and fully legible. The text block shows age-appropriate foxing throughout, light to moderate, consistent with an Edwardian book of this date. The spine is strong with no cracking at the hinges. A good, presentable copy of a prize binding with complete and traceable provenance.
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