FAUST      JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

FROM THE GERMAN BY JOHN ANSTER

ILLUSTRATED BY HARRY CLARKE

DINGWALL ROCK, LIMITED    NEW YORK    1925  

Signed and limited first edition.  From signed limitation page: "Edition limited to one thousand copies for England and one thousand copies for the United States, of which this is No. '966' of the American issue.  'Harry Clarke'".  Rare edition from Dingwall Rock, Limited, publishers, of New York.  Large 8 1/4" x 10 5/8" design.

Grey boards, cream vellum (leather) spine wrap, newly conditioned, gilt spine titles, moderate cover, corner wear, bow.  Classic, simple design.  Richly colored frontispiece plate: "Dearest and best, with my whole heart I love thee.  p. 178".   Includes eight brilliantly miasmic color plates by Harry Clarke and intriguing nouveau illustration throughout in full and partial-page designs. 

Highly influential renderings from the golden age of gift-book illustration in first quarter of twentieth century.   Many rarities not seen elsewhere.  Powerfully vivid, chiaroscuro illustrations by Harry Clarke throughout.  Beautifully haunting and nighmarish renderings.

Vintage rough-cut, deckled leaves very good; no writing.   Bright gilded top-edge.  Haunting monochromatic pictorial endpapers in striking blue and white over black.  Small antiquarian bookstore label inside back cover: "bennett schneider, book seller, 213 West 47th Street, Kansas City, Mo."  Bind good, stiff; front hinge reinforced.   

Clarke (March 17, 1889-1931) was a famed Irish book illustrator and stained glass artist.  Born in Dublin, he was a leading figure in the Irish Arts and Crafts Movement. Translated into English, in the original metres, by John Anster.  Printed in Great Britain for George G. Harrap and Dingwall Rock, by Walter Lewis, at the University Press, Cambridge.  4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall.  255 pages.  Insured post.