[Fine Binding | Vellucent Panel | John James Audubon] The Winter's Wreath

[Various authors]. The Winter's Wreath, A Collection of Original Contributions in Prose and Verse. London: George B. Whittaker, (1829). Engraved decorative title page (which has been hand colored) and 12 plates. On pages 104-127, the first printing of John James Audubon's "Journey Up the Mississippi" is included.

"Almost twenty years later, Audubon wrote an account of the trip, Journey up the Mississippi, which he published in 1828 for a Liverpool editor of a Victorian anthology called A Winter's Wreath. At the time time, Audubon was in England promoting himself and trying to bring Birds of America to press. Journey up the Mississippi is a fascinating document for many reasons, but I dwell on it here because it describes Audubon's first physical encounter with Louisiana. This is not the southern Louisiana that will revive Audubon's designs and desires in 1820, but it is Louisiana nonetheless. Audubon refers to it as 'Upper Louisiana,' using the old term to describe half of the vast French colony that originally stretched from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and included the entire Mississippi River Valley" (Audubon on Louisiana, Forkner).

As noted in 1942 by John Francis McDermott, "...it is such a detailed picture of the Mississippi country in 1810 that it is well worth reprinting from the rare volume in which it has been hidden for more than a century."

Bound in deep green crushed morocco by "W.E.P." (stamped in blind on rear turn-in) with a "vellucent" image--i.e. painted on the backside of translucent vellum--of a cherubesque child surrounded by green leaves and red berries inlaid to the upper cover, accented with gilt decorative tooling. Five bands to spine with title in gilt to second compartment, blind tooling extending off the bands onto the covers. Gilt ruled turn-ins with colored vellum floral inlays to each corner. Light green silk endpapers, all edges gilt. Measures approx. 4.25" x 6.25". A bit of fading to spine, silk on the fly leaves loose (still connected at hinge) and a bit chipped at edges.

While I was unable to find a match to the "W.E.P." signature in my research, it is a fascinating binding, clearly influenced by Cedric Chivers' "vellucent" designs, and appears to have been done by a highly-skilled amateur.