[Head, Francis Bond- Earliest Cloth Cover with Pictorial Design] Bubbles from the Brunnens of Nassau (two copies, the first edition, and the second edition, published in the same year)

London: John Murray, 1834. First and Second Edition. First and Second Edition. Offered here are both the first and the second edition (both published in 1834) of Head’s now famous book, considered to be among the first cloth covers ever to be produced with a full pictorial design. As well, the nine lithographed plates were drawn in a process described by Bruges’ patent Paneidolon, a new method of tracing objects through glass, and these were printed on India paper and pasted into the book. Contemporary gilt calf, with bookplate of Matilda Ellen Slade. Upper joint weakening. As well, the scarce second edition (published in the same year as the first edition), (truncated) is in the original pictorial cloth on front and back cover, depicting a traveler on the globe blowing bubbles which surround the cover and the world. A landmark in book design, and which must have caused a considerable stir in the publishing world. The idea seems to have been the brain-child of the author, the eccentric Sir Francis Bond Head (1793-1875). Engraved frontispiece, engraved additional pictorial title-page. The tipped-in plates of the first edition drawn by “Paneidolon,” afforded the artist the opportunity to trace in pencil an image onto a thin transparent medium, while being able to see everything in the field of vision (Eric Quayle, The Collector’s Book of Books, 1971), The first edition sold out, as did the second edition published the same year. The second edition with wear along margins and base of spine, red endpapers, 406pp, Finding the book in presentable condition with the pictorial covers is extremely difficult, and our copy is quite nice. (Inventory #: 6603)