[Lorenz Schwartz Collection] The Digressions of V

 

The Digressions of V.: Written for His Own Fun and that of His Friends. Containing the quaint Legends of his Infancy, an Account of his Stay in Florence, the Garden of lost Opportunities…

by Elihu Vedder. Two volumes. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1910. Autograph Edition. Copy No. 212 of 525 copies, printed on Japan vellum and signed by the author who wrote and illustrated this literary self-portrait. The book also contains a drawing made especially for this edition. Illustrated with full-page color and mono-chrome photographs and sketches. Bound in full navy blue crushed morocco by Lorenz Schwartz at The Zahn Bindery with gilt framed front and back covers with six tooled abstract design creating three regions on the cover; staggering terminals of each fillet ending in a leaf tool; each leaf separated with a large dot. The design somewhat portrays the creation of a V form with lower part of the V at center fore-edge and extending toward the head and tail regions of the spine. Spines in five gilt-framed compartments with four raised bands: volume number appears in the middle of the largest central compartment which is also embellished in multiple-lined and angular gold tooling reminiscent of the covers; title and author in compartments two and four respectively, and head and tail compartments with multiple-lined and angular gold tooling again reflecting the cover design. Doublures of morocco; outer single fillet; inner gilt-framed with triple fillet margins surrounding blue watered moiré silk panels with matching moiré silk endpapers.