Physiologus, The Very Ancient Book of Beasts, Plants and Stones; Translated from Greek and Other Languages...
San Francisco: The Book Club of California [printed by Vivien & Mallette Dean], 1953. Dean, Mallette. Limited Edition. Hardcover. One of 325 copies, quarto size, 76 pp., with bifolium memorial to Mallette Dean loosly laid in. Fine. Item #26100403
A perfectly lovely retelling of the old legends. Fifty-four illustrations, including those on the title page and half-title, were all drawn by Mallette Dean and printed directly from the blocks; they were then hand-coloured throughout. Due to the time-consuming demands of hand-colouring the decorations, this book took a year to print. Included in the Exhibition of Western Books of the Rounce & Coffin Club (n.b., much of the above info from the Magee bibliography).
Based on the first Greek bestiary, a collection of legends of animals, plants and stones, which dates back to the second century A.D. and which was prepared by a Christian monk based in either Egypt or Palestine, who found in each legend a mystic meaning.
Harold Mallette Dean (1907-1975) was a painter and illustrator who worked for most of his career in San Francisco, on projects such as the WPA Mural Project, the murals in Coit Tower, and for fifteen years illustrating books for the Grabhorn Press. He and his wife Vivien also established their own printing press in Fairfax, California, in 1953, with Mallette doing the illustrations for most of the books they issued.
The prior owner laid into this volume a bifolium published by The Book Club of California as a memorial of Mallette Dean; this work mentioned on the fourth page, as one of "the most important" works produced by Dean for the BCC.
___DESCRIPTION: White parchment boards with a pattern in grey-blue, red lettering on the spine, fore-edge rough-cut, bottom edge uncut, hand-coloured illustrations and decorations throughout (as described above), marginal chapter numbers and titles in red, forty-nine legends ("chapters") total; French Elzevir type set by hand on Arches mould made paper, binding quarto size (11 1/8" by 7 7/ 8"), unpaginated with the following collation: title [i], copyright notice [ii], introduction [iii-x], list of chapters [xi-xii], text including half-title [1-61], blank [62], colophon with Mallette Dean device in red [63], blank [64]; limited edition of 325 copies, unnumbered. The memorial bifolium with a decoration of Dean's initials on the first page, the second and third pages being an excerpt from one of his books with an illustration on the left and a sample text page on the right; measuring 9 5/8" tall by 6 1/2" wide.
___CONDITION: Fine overall; the covers clean (although with the usual offsetting from the glue), straight corners with absolutely no rubbing, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, the interior is clean and bright, and entirely free of prior owner markings; a fine copy overall; the memorial also fine overall, clean, without edgewear although with a very small crease to the upper fore-edge corners. Somewhat scarce in the marketplace, as of this writing we see no other copies online.
___CITATION: BCC 100, no. 85; Hawk, no. 314.
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Price: $400.00