Rare Book-Plates (Ex-Libris) of the XVth and XVIth Centuries, by Albert Duerer, H. Burgmair, H.S. Beham, Virgil Solis, Jost Amman etc.

London: H. Grevel & Co, 1894. Complete set of this illustrated reference guide to one hundred representative bookplates of the fifteen and sixteenth centuries, compiled by Frederick Warnecke. Each plate is identified by the name of the artist, the owner, the date, the dimensions, and the corresponding entry in Warnecke’s Heraldische Kunstblätter, a guide to coats-of-arms. The oversized dimensions of bookplates of the era encouraged greater complexity in composition; artists include Albrecht Dürer, Hans Burgkmair, Hans Sebald Beham, Virgil Solis, Jost Amman, and Heinrich Ullrich, among others. This London edition was issued the same year as the Berlin edition, and was limited to one hundred copies. A very good copy, complete in the original parts. Complete set in five original parts, measuring 8.5 x 6.5 inches: [4], 1-8, plates 1-20; [2], 9-12, plates 21-40, [2]; [2], 13-16, plates 41-60, [2]; [2], 17-20, plates 61-80, [2]; [2], 21-24, plates 81-100, [2]. Original pictorial wrappers and title pages printed in black and red, text blocks uncut and partially unopened. Twenty plates in each volume. Wrappers dusty; some marginal chips and closed tears (not affecting images); private library labels tipped inside front wrappers. Laid in are three leaves from an early twentieth-century catalogue by Guildford bookseller Thomas Thorp, listing works on bookplates (including the German edition of Warnecke). Housed in a custom clamshell box. (Inventory #: 1003992)