The Vintage Festival: Ancient Rome.
By L. Alma Tadema.
London: Pilgeram and Lefèvre, n.d. [but 1873].
Octavo pamphlet (8 x 5-1/4 in., 203 x 135 mm) sewn with self-covers of
semi-coated ivory wove paper. Collates 20 ll.: [A]2 (the self-covers),
B8, C8, D2; 1 l. (front cover, printed
in red and black), pp. [1]-35, [1 p.], 1 l. (rear cover, with advertisement
for the engraving by Auguste Blanchard). Previously folded in half vertically,
three tips of cover corners torn, top and bottom of spine worn through 5
mm from edge, cover soiling and abrasions, fold in tips of upper front corners
of cover and first text leaves, slight uniform age toning throughout. A
generally good copy in complete original state, very good internally except
for the old vertical fold. A rare survival, this promotional pamphlet by
Pilgeram and Lefèvre, successors to E. Gambart & Co., comprises
a six-page essay on Alma-Tadema’s Vintage Festival, 28 pages
copying press reviews of the painting from leading newspapers and journals,
and a postscript dated October 1873 noting the award of the Croix de la
Légion d’Honneur to the painter. The reviews extol the large,
first version on canvas (1870, 77 x 177 cm, now in the Hamburger Kunsthalle,
Hamburg, Germany). The dealer Ernest Gambart had already commissioned from
Alma-Tadema a second version, a reduced replica on panel for Gambart's own
private collection (1871, 51 x 119 cm, now in the National Gallery of Victoria,
Melbourne, Australia), to serve as the model for the engraving by Auguste
Blanchard, the progress of which is noted in the reviews. We offer an exceptional
signed Artist’s Proof of the engraving before letters on laid chine
in its original frame with its original float glass and on its original
canvas support, Alma
Tadema's The Vintage Festival.
Offered together with the engraving
Inquiries: mail@mobysnewt.com
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