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The Remaining Papers of Giles Lytton Strachey
Sold by order of the Strachey Trust
Lot 184

STRACHEY (LYTTON)
Original design by Halsey Ricardo for Lytton Strachey's first pictorial bookplate, together with examples of the printed version, in both sizes, printed in black; and an example of the lithographed book plate designed by Dora Carrington for Strachey, 1899 and [1931]

24 June 2015, 11:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £687.50 inc. premium

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STRACHEY (LYTTON)

Original design by Halsey Ricardo for Lytton Strachey's first pictorial bookplate, drawn in pen and ink and showing an orange tree against a rising sun, mediaeval and classical ships either side, growing with its roots in a skull, the whole framed as a window with tiled inscription below reading "Giles Lytton Strachey" and signed "Halsey Ricardo 1899", on a cabinet card, rounded corners, pencil jottings indicating measurements of printed versions, minor discolouration, 165 x 110mm.; together with examples of the printed version, in both sizes, printed in black; and an example of the lithographed book plate designed by Dora Carrington for Strachey, bearing the legend ʻLytton Strachey' set on a rococo cartouche against a trellised background, large version, printed in black, on paper, 82 x 109mm., in an envelope addressed to Giles Lytton Strachey, 1899 and [1931]

Footnotes

BOOKPLATES FOR ʻGLOOMY FACED BOOKSELLERS AND BUYERS'. Carrington's bookplate comes in two sizes of which ours, the larger, is comparatively rare. Ten months before her lover's death, she wrote in her diary: ʻAs I stuck the book plates in with Lytton I suddenly thought of Sothebys and the book plates in some books I had looked at, when Lytton was bidding for a book and I thought: These books will one day be looked at by those gloomy faced booksellers and buyers. And suddenly a premonition of a day when these labels will no longer (be) in this library came over me. I longed to ask Lytton not to stick in any more' (20 March 1931, in Carrington: Letters and Extracts from Her Diaries, edited by David Garnett, 1970).

Halsey Ricardo, author of the first design, worked in partnership with the potter William De Morgan and is best remembered as architect of Debenham (or Peacock) House in Addison Road, Holland Park. He also designed the elaborate mantelpiece in the Strachey family's Lancaster Gate house.

Additional information

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