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Original Copy of Blades on Printers' Tokens & Medals

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:500.00 USD Estimated At:750.00 USD
Original Copy of Blades on Printers' Tokens & Medals
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Blades, William. A LIST OF MEDALS, JETTONS, TOKENS, &C. IN CONNECTION WITH PRINTERS AND THE ART OF PRINTING. London, 1869. First edition. Small 8vo [18 by 11.5 cm], original blue cloth; sides paneled in blind; covers and spine lettered and decorated in gilt, including an impression of a printing press. (2), xv, (1), 128 pages; title printed within an attractive lithographic border; 96 well-engraved plates. Bound in after the last plate is a Desiderata leaf printed on regular stock, followed by four identical perforated Desiderata leaves printed on tinted tissue stock, and an oversized four-page French Prospectus for Numismata Typographica folded and bound in. Inscribed but not signed by the author opposite the title page. Binding a bit worn, especially at spine, with closed tears to cloth. Very good or better. Very rare. Blades (1824-90), was a noted printing historian and was also one of the best known and respected English printers of his time. This underappreciated work was a pioneering effort and, the author notes, was issued "as a forerunner of a similar work on a more extended scale... Another reason for publishing now is the hope that the very imperfections of this list may tend to the greater perfection of that to come, by drawing attention to Medals at present untraceable or unknown." The limitation leaf following the title states: "This Edition consists of 100 copies only, of which 25 are upon Fcap. 4to., and 75 upon Fcap 8vo. Not printed for Sale." The work is very difficult to find today and it seems likely that a substantial percentage of the edition has not survived. This copy is inscribed "Chas. Kinloch, Esq. with the Author's kind regards." Grierson 257 (mis-dated 1969).