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Holbein, Hans : [The Dance of Death...in a Series of Fifty-two Engravings on Wood by Mr. Bewick]

4to., Three-quarter green morocco over marbled boards.Essentially an album or scrap book into which have been laid down cuttings from what appears to be a newspaper or a magazine. The illustrations and text are that of a publication by William Charlton Wright, entitled The Dance of Death of the Illustrated Hans Holbein...A Series of fifty-two engravings on wood by Mr. Bewick...London, 1825, Since its publication, it has never been accepted as Bewick's work, and according to Aldred Warthin (The Doctor of the Dance of Death): "The cuts with several exceptions are imitations of the original Holbein, but are absurdly modernized; both the costumes and the properties are represented in the contemporary style...[they] have somewhat the quality of caricature in them...If these cuts are Bewick's, which Douce seems to doubt, they are far inferior to his other work, and executed in a different style. They represent a far departure from the old medieval conceptions and treatment, and betray the tendency of the early nineteenth century to use the Dance of Death motive for purposes of caricature." Comparison with either of Bewick's 1789 editions, the London edition and the notably rare Charnley/Newcastle imprint, bears this out." Nine of the 52 cuts are not present here (plates 1, 26-31, 50 and 51); the pagination, the type faces, the placement of the folios are inconsistent, and there is text printed on the versos on each cutting, all of which supports the theory that these plates with their accompanying commentary were extracted from a serial publication using the same text and images as in the 1825 William Charlton Wright book. UNDOUBTEDLY RARE!See: Douce, Francis. Holbein's Dance of Death. Lon., 1858. Not in the Susan Minns collection (sold by AAA Galleries in 1922), which contained the other Bewick printings.

AN ALBUM—PRINTING HISTORY UNKNOWN

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