The Book of Bread. by SIMMONS, Owen - [1903]

London: Maclaren & Sons,, [1903]. One of the humblest, yet most essential of objects is catalogued as precisely, rigorously and objectively as any work by a 1980s conceptual artist First edition of this handsome monograph illustrated with original photographs on the manufacture of bread. Simmons, a lecturer at the National Bakery School in London, commissioned the full-size black and white photos of different types of bread that appear in his work, writing: "However critical readers may be, they will be forced to admit that never before have they seen such a complete collection of prize loaves illustrated in such an excellent manner" (Parr & Badger). "Here, at the beginning of the twentieth century, one of the humblest, yet most essential of objects is catalogued as precisely, rigorously and objectively as any work by a 1980s conceptual artist" (ibid.). Quarto. Original green cloth, titles to spine black and front board gilt, buff patterned endpapers. With 12 chromolithograph plates, 8 tipped-in original photographs and 2 mounted silver gelatine prints. Spine rolled, spine ends and tips lightly worn, rear hinge cracked but holding, contents mildly foxed. A very good copy. Parr & Badger I, p. 56; Bitting p. 435.