Designs on the Land, Diseños of California Ranchos

San Francisco: The Book Club of California (printed by Robert Grabhorn and Andrew Hoyem), 1969. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. One of 500 copies, oblong elephant folio size, [178] pp. The Book Club of California publication number 133, being a sequel to Robert Becker's earlier club publication of 1964 (no. 118). This time Becker focuses on the map makers rather than the land cases, some of whom were anonymous, others well-known, most notably John Bidwell, James Alexander Forbes and Abel Stearns. "During the printing of this book, the original diseños, on loan to the Press from The Bancroft Library, were deposited at night in a vault of the Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco" (N.B., from the BCC bibliography). Included in the Exhibition of Western Books (Rounce & Coffin Club).

___DESCRIPTION: Quarter brown suede and brown cloth covered boards, yellow endpapers, title, printer's notice and list of maps in terra cotta and black, opening initial letter, rules, decorations and divisional titles in terra cotta, index map in colour, sixty-four facsimile map reproductions (two fold-out) of which twenty are in colour; Centaur and Arrighi types (handset and monotype), machine made paper, oblong elephant folio size (14.25" by 18.5"), pagination: [i-xiv] [1-164], limited edition of 500 copies.

___CONDITION: A near fine copy, internally bright and free of prior owner markings other than the attractive Ex-Libris plate of the original owner, text block is tight with solid hinges, plates are clean and complete; faint strips of sun-toning to the covers, a small indentation to the top of the front board, a few light, stray soil marks, and a small spot of white to the back board; even with its few faults, still overall a near fine copy.

___CITATIONS: BCC 200, no. 133; Grabhorn-Hoyem Bibliography, no. 29.

___POSTAGE: Please note that this is an extremely large and heavy book, and therefore additional postage will apply. We are happy to ship at cost to both domestic and international customers, please inquire for details.

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