Bovisms

London: Bovis Ltd, 1950. First Edition. Portfolio, light card stock. With flaps. Plates loose within. Near Fine. Lawson Wood; H. M. Bateman; Peter Fraser; W. Heath Robinson; George Morrow; Bert Thomas; and Alfred Leete.. Quirky, funny send-up of many aspects of home renovation by a stellar line-up of literary and visual humorists. Published by a major London contractor or construction firm, surely as a promotional tool. The firm, Bovis Ltd., was acquired and absorbed by P&O in 1974 and is now under yet another corporate umbrella but the underlying business itself, as opposed to its corporate ownership or organization, remains a significant player in its industry. In any case, for a private enterprise to afford the services of the talent involved in this promotion, it really had a robust war chest, for W. Heath Robinson and Lawson Wood, to name just two of the contributors, were immensely popular illustrators. As a promotion, Bovis goes the offbeat or unusual route of poking fun, albeit perhaps gentle fun, at its own industry and itself. Anyone who has engaged contractors, or even just standard tradespeople such as plumbers and electricians, will nod their head in recognition of the inevitable missteps and blunders committed by these professionals. N.d., 1950. 4to. 28 by 21 cm. 17 loose leaves. Unpaginated. Printing on one side of each. Title leaf. Six leaves following primarily textual, with a small vignette drawing or two at their base. Then ten leaves dominated by illustration(s) with captioning at their base, and sometimes by drawings if they are arranged as comic strips with multiple cells. Also some text on inside back of portfolio. Scarce, with only copies reflected on OCLC First Search at V&A, National Library of Scotland and Dartmouth. One OCLC entry indicates there are 18 leaves, while we are representing there are just 17. We believe that they are counting the portfolio as a leaf, which after all, has content, but as of this date, we aren't 100 percent certain. We would note, though, that our number seems also likelier, as the odds are against a company arranging for 11 illustrated plates or 7 text pages, as opposed to 10 and 6, respectively. The portfolio shows considerable wear, with a number of small tears, creases and the like. Its internal folds have also been repaired non-professionally with scotch tape. The portfolio, though, is still completely functional for its purpose. The leaves within are completely clean and we would say close to Like New condition. Overall, we thus would grade this very rare collection of home renovation humor as Near Fine. (Inventory #: 19804)