LES FAIENCES ANCIENNES ET MODERNES, LEUR MARQUES ET DÉCORS by [McMurtry, Belle (binder)]: Mareschal, M. A. A - 1854

Paris: Librairie Eugene Delaroque, 1854. xiii,[3]pp.,1-83 leaves (printed on rectos only),[2],83-91pp. Tall quarto (26.5 x 18 cm). Bound in full medium brown crushed levant, raised bands, side panels with inlaid tan morocco border ornamented with small three-petaled orange flowers with green leaves, surrounding a central basket of an array of flowers of various styles made up of morocco inlays, full plum morocco doublures with inlaid floral corner piece juxtaposed with an inlaid morocco multi-color morocco vignette of an Asian man surrounded by vegetation, seated and fishing. Silk free endsheets and a.e.g. Patch of surface abrasion at toe of lower joint, signs of early and subtle reinforcement along the lower joint with matching brown morocco, upper board detached, spine darkened and raised bands a bit rubbed, internally fine. Somewhat rubbed morocco faced slipcase. Second edition of this record of the decorative devices and marks of French earthenware artists. In the majority of cases, a single leaf is devoted to each design, with the typography arranged to allow the insertion of the specific design in delicate multi-color pochoir. Belle McMurtry (1875-1959), whose blind-stamped signature appears in the lower left corner of the front inner doublure, was the dean of California bookbinders, and the backbone of the modern movement of hand binders. She joined the Guild of Book Workers in 1906 and was also a charter member, as was her future husband, W.R.K. Young, of the Book Club of California. Although her training began in San Francisco with Octavia Holden, the bulk of her instruction took place over a period of years beginning in 1919 in France, under the tutelage of Rose Adler, Henri Noulhac, Adolphe Cuzin, and Emile Maylander.