Defoe, Daniel & Kauffer, E. McKnight (Illus.) ~The Life And Strange Surprizing Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe Of York Mariner : One Of Only 35 Special Copies Signed By The Illustrator

Frederick Etchells & Hugh Macdonald, London : 1929

The First UK printing of this illustrated edition published by Frederick Etchells & Hugh Macdonald, London in 1929. The BOOK is in Very Good++ or better condition. The limited issue of only 35 copies which have been signed by Kauffer to the limitation page, this one unnumbered. Printed on T. H. Saunders mould-made paper, and bound in quarter morocco. There was also a trade edition of 500 copies unsigned on normal rag paper and bound in cloth. Original blue quarter morocco, titles to spine silver, blue buckram boards with Kauffer's design in silver to the front board, edges untrimmed. The morocco spine is slightly sunned and rubbed. Internally, apart from some offsetting to the endpapers, the book is clean and the binding remains tight. Frontispiece and 7 hand coloured pochoir illustrations by E. McKnight Kauffer, using the pochoir process. This deluxe signed issue is extremely rare, with only two copies recorded at auction in the past 50 years. Kauffer was born in the U.S.A. but settled in England in 1914. He was a member of both Wyndham Lewis's 'Group X' and the' Cumberland Market Group'. Kauffer's real genius was in advertising art; he produced seminal posters for the London Transport Board and for the Great Western Railway, as well as book jackets and illustrations. A very attractive production. The Times described McKnight Kauffer's illustrations as 'these very fresh and brilliant plates' while T.S. Eliot, an early collaborator, wrote 'I like the illustrations immensely, and some them have a quality which reminds me of Chirico'. (Tucker 26).

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good++