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Title

Elixir of Life

{Uisge Beatha}

Being the slight account

of the romantic rise to fame

of a great House.

By Geoffrey Warren

Decorated by

Harry Clarke

[Scarce First Edition – Cloth Spine, Coloured Boards – Signed by Harry Clarke – Signature Authenticated by Clarke's Biographer]

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Author

Geoffrey Warren

Harry Clarke [Illustrator]

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Year of Publication

1925

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Publisher

Dublin: John Jameson & Son Limited.

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For full description see below - after all photographs

 

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Description:

Dublin: John Jameson & Son Limited, 1925, Scarce First Edition SIGNED by the Illustrator to the front end paper.

Original black cloth spine with lime green boards, with paper label to upper cover lettered within a fleuron border.

Pages printed on wove paper; with 5 full page plates and 4 vignettes all printed in yellow and black with titles below printed in black.

SIGNED in red ink to the front free end paper “To Lennox Robinson from Harry Clarke”.

Henry Patrick Clarke RHA (1889–1931) was an Irish stained-glass artist and book illustrator. Born in Dublin, he was a leading figure in the Irish Arts and Crafts Movement.

His work was influenced by both the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements. His stained glass was particularly informed by the French Symbolist movement.

This is the sole edition. One of the rarest and most collectable works to have been illustrated by Harry Clarke. It was the second of two promotional souvenir booklets issued by John Jameson & Sons, the Irish Whiskey distillers, the first being ‘Irish Whiskey: A History of a Great House’, published the year before. Copies are particularly scarce in the original boards.

In a letter accompanying a copy sent to a friend Clarke wrote "Here is one of the books I did for Jameson - it was made in Dublin and if you have ever had any experience of Dublin printers you will know it was only produced with great difficulty" (Steenson. A Bibliographical Checklist of the work of Harry Clarke, A7).

Esmé Stuart Lennox Robinson (4 October 1886 – 15 October 1958) was an Irish dramatist, poet and theatre producer and director who was involved with the Abbey Theatre.

Clarke designed a cover used in the various issues of Robinson's plays. Robinson accompanied Clarke to the sanatorium in Switzerland wher he died of TB in 1931. (Martin Steenson).

Martin Steenson has confirmed this signature.

[iv], 1-17, [iv]pp.

Provenance: inscribed by the author to Lennox Robinson, 1925.

Approximately 6 1/8 inches tall.

 

Condition Report

Externally

• Spine – good condition – black cloth, gently frayed to the base and top.
• Joints – good condition – sound.
• Corners – good condition – bumped and worn.
• Boards – good condition – light green boards with a paper title label to the front, marked and stained (lightly).
• Page edges – good condition – all edges tanned.
• See above and photos.

Internally

• Hinges – good condition – secure to the start and end, strained with webbing showing between 4/5, and 12/13.
• Paste downs – good condition – tanned and gently foxed.
• End papers – good condition – tanned and gently foxed, author’s signature dated 1925.
• Title – good condition – lightly tanned.
• Pages – good condition – lightly tanned throughout.
• Binding – good condition – strained to the centre.
• See photos.

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Ruler in picture is 6 inches long.

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