| British Library: | C.98.gg.3 |
| Curwen Press: | M23 |
| British Library: | C.98.gg.3 |
| Curwen Press: | M23 |
[A]1v
[A]2r
[within a double wavy rule] BENITO CERENO BY HERMAN MELVILLE WITH PICTURES BY E. McKNIGHT KAUFFER [line block with blue colouring: a ship's officer] MCMXXVI THE NONESUCH PRESS 16 GREAT JAMES STREET, LONDON
H8v
[A]8 B-H8.
[4] 1-6 [7-8] 9-10 [11-12] 13-46 [47-8] 49-74 [75-6] 77-88 [89-90] 91-6 [97-8] 99-122 [+2].
Imperial 8o: 11⅞" × 7¼", all edges untrimmed, grey wove, watermarked Nonesuch; 14(+7)pt. Walbaum; title-page, headpiece, tailpiece and 7 full-page line block illustrations in black, stencilled with 3 or fewer colours; casing, red buckram on bevelled boards, gold-blocked down spine: ‘[within wavy ruled border] BENITO CERENO’; Dreyfus 1981 cat. 36 notes dust-jacket either red printed typographical or of grey Ingres paper.
First published anonymously in Putnam's monthly magazine (1855) then collected in The Piazza Tales (1856). David Garnett, a founder of the Nonesuch Press, suggested the story and choice of artist to Nonesuch.
The first book to be completely coloured by the stencil process at the Curwen Press.(Twemlow 2009, 32-34), text and stencilled illustrations both executed at Curwen Press (Balston 1951, p.27).
Shown at the Zwemmer Gallery 1930 (see Mzi).
One of the books shown in J. Curwen & Sons Centenary Exhibition 1963 (see Ab7) in Bloomsbury.
For stencilling see Simon (1956) p.86 note, Simon (1973) p.217; On Kauffer Flower says '9 full-page illustrations are pen-and-ink drawings coloured through stencils at the Curwen Press' '...great step forward in Kauffer's technique'. He describes the frontispiece: 'one of the most brilliant designs [Kauffer] ever conceived'. Flower (1956) p.36.
Dreyfus 1981 cat. 36 says Random House distributed it in America at $7.50.
B.L. copy un-numbered, Curwen copy likewise.
5/Jan/1927
IMDb Munzinger NPG ODNB NPG ODNB IMDb
Robin Phillips, 1963, revised 25/Jul/2011