Stab binding. Card front and rear
1898 · Jamaica
Jamaica, 1898. Stab binding. Card front and rear. Near Fine. With six highly unusual and beautiful mixed-media specimens of folk art, each of which is accompanied by a few lines of explanatory material on the source of materials -- and this exposition is in our view part of the value of the whole, as it makes explicit just how the doilies were made. The doilies are 16.5 cm in diameter, with a light mesh center onto which is mounted exquisite tropical fern leaves. This mesh is made of the tissue of the lace bark tree, we are told Surrounding this is a ring with original watercolored floral decoration using Jamaican flowers. The material used as the base is the papyus of a plant -- the explanation is not clear to us on this point. And the outer periphery is of fringe of fine soft fabric. The maker of these doilies, whose initials are "A. B. ?", describes the doilies as "nature in the tropics", where "she is most luxuriant", and one might also say that they are nature's trophies. With watercolored and ribboned decoration on the card cover, which has serrated edges. 4to. 24 by 22 cm. The doilies are loose, as they were intended to be. Moderate wear to the album. Joint repaired. Offsetting from the doilies onto the facing pages. The doilies themselves are perfectly preserved.
(Inventory #: 19856)