Buy this book on-line

ONIONS, OLIVER : THE WORK OF HENRY OSPOVAT. - With an appreciation by Oliver Onions

LONDON.THE SAINT CATHERINE PRESS,1911.

ISBN No ISBN.

UK,Folio HB,1st edn.VG+.No owner inscrptn. Publisher's bright,crisp,clean,sharp-cornered,original dark brown buckram boards with bright,crisp,blocked gilt title to front board,a pasted leather label with similar bright,crisp,blocked gilt bordered edging and similar bright,crisp,gilt blocked lettered title within same,to head of a slightly darkened spine/ backstrip, rear board plain dark brown without decoration or text,top edges gilt,fore-edges aged/toned with about half-a-dozen or so foxing spots/blemishes,white endpapers with inevitable off-setting from front+rear pastedowns to recto and verso of respective free endpapers.Front hinge's endpapers with split approx 3/4s of its height,still in situ and attached and NOT loose.Negligible shelf-wear.bumping,creasing to edges and corners - no nicks,tears or splits present. Fore-edge of front board with a trio of small,but intact dents,but with no splits or tears to same.Contents generally bright, tight,clean with light foxing to a few prelims at front and last pages at rear, else solid - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners - possibly unread,other than my own collation.UK,Folio HB,1st edn, vii-ixpp+1-41pp [paginated] includes contents list/table,an appreciation by novelist Oliver Onions; plus [unpaginated] 2pp blanks,half-title with blank versoblank recto with author's thanks to its verso, tipped-in subject's colour self-portrait, title page with black+red lettering and blank verso,blank recto of last page of contents list,an Appreciation separator page with blank verso,Drawings,Paintings and Caricatures separator page with blank verso,60 monotone and duotone reproductions of the work of Ospovat,and 2 colour tipped-in plates: a colour painting portrait of a musician and a tipped-in colour caricature of Marie Lloyd within the appreciation text. Visually the exterior appearance is exceptional for a book of it's age, and even internally,the book is also in an exceptional condition/state of preservation and presentation.It is only the exterior faults described that prevent a higher grading.Despite them,it really is an exceptional copy for brightness and cleanliness. Illustrator and caricaturist,Henry Ospovat was born in Dvinsk,Russia (now Daugavplis, Latvia),to orthodox Jewish parents,the son of a Jewish Talmudic scholar.Fear of persecution and hoping to find greater economic security,Ospovat migrated with his family to Manchester,England in 1891, settling within the large Jewish community already established there.Henry attended the Jews' School in Derby Street and,almost certainly,a private Hebrew school. Recognising his artistic talent from a young age,his teachers helped to send him to the Municipal School of Art around 1893, with a wealthy member of the local Jewish community paying for his tuition.At the school,he was encouraged by Walter Crane, the visiting Master of Design.Afterwards, Ospovat was apprenticed to a local lithographer and in 1897 he relocated to London where,thanks to a scholarship,he studied at the South Kensington Schools (Royal College of Art).He trained in lithography under Thomas Robert Way and his progress continued to be encouraged by Crane,who had become the college’s Principal. During this time,Ospovat also met pre-Raphaelite,George Frederick Watts and the novelist Arnold Bennett.Other influential artists included Daniel Gabriel Rossetti, Frederick Sandys and Boyd Houghton,whose works he carefully observed,as suggested by his early designs for book-plates.At the end of 1898,Ospovat was introduced to the publisher John Lane who recognised his artistic talent and immediately commissioned a set of illustrations to the 'Sonnets of Shakespeare' (1899),which revealed Ospovat's 'awareness of Laurence Housman and Charles Ricketts as well as of the artists of the 1860s'. Lane next commissioned Ospovat to work on 'Poems of Matthew Arnold' (1900) and 'Shakespeare Songs' (1901). Ospovat's desire to publish his work in a large,portfolio format seemed to be fulfilled when he received a commission by J M Dent for an edition of Robert Browning's 'Men and Women.' However,he was disappointed when he found that the published volume (1903) was much more conventional in appearance and excluded some of his more experimental drawings.In the same year Ospovat produced illustrations to Constance E Maud's 'Heroines of Poetry' and,probably from financial necessity,he also undertook 'a series of direct and hatchet-like illustrations to a series of cheap novels. Nevertheless,he remained ambitious,and planned portfolios for'Stars of the Music Hall' and Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales.' Ospovat also developed his talent for caricature,proving to be 'merciless in his humour'. His caricatures,particularly in 'Sporting Sketches' published in 1907,would influence prominent cartoonists such as H M Bateman and Bert Thomas.Among the personalities who became his subjects were Marie Lloyd,Henry Irving,Sir Thomas Lipton and George Grossmith Jr. Some caricatures featured in the 'Annual Caricature Exhibition' at the Baillle Gallery in 1908 when they were praised in the Manchester Guardian; other works appeared in the same year at the New English Art Club and the International Society. Ospovat also produced watercolours and paintings (one representing a couple in Renaissance dress was reproduced in Country Life,23 January 1992),and he was beginning to develop as a portraitist when he developed stomach cancer.Henry Ospovat died in London,England on 1 February 1909,aged only 31.As reported by his friend Haldane Macfall,'Ospovat always faced the truth [of his illness]; he shook his head,and,with a smile,said that it was not his bodily agonies that punished him,but the awful fact that he was not granted a little while longer to do good work'. A memorial exhibition,'displaying a cleverness approaching genius' (The Graphic 1909, p. 352),was held at the Baillie Gallery (established by New Zealand ex pat dealer, John Baillie) the following month,from which the British Museum bought four drawings for their collection.In 1912, Anglo-Jewish poet-painter,'Whitechapel Boy',Isaac Rosenberg reviewed a further show at the Baillie,featuring works by Ospovat and fellow Jewish artist,J. H. Amshewitz,which was printed in the Jewish Chronicle.Rosenberg observed that 'If one were to walk into the Baillie Galleries, Bruton Street,without knowing the names of the artists [...] one would not suspect for a moment the Jewish parentage of this remarkable progeny' (Jewish Chronicle, 912).The Athenaeum praised some of the exhibition’s book illustrations,among them the ‘delicate feminine figure,touching in its refinement’ in 'Two Young Fair Lovers' (The Athenaeum 1909,p. 205). A limited-edition portfolio of Ospovat's illustrations,caricatures,sketches and portraits was published with an appreciation written by his friend,the novelist Oliver Onions in 1911 and which included reproductions many previously unpublished portraits and studies for portraits.After many years of reputational neglect,in 1992,Ospovat was included in the exhibition of works on paper 'Beardsley to Bomberg' held at the Tate Gallery.His work is represented in UK public collections including the Tate, Victoria and Albert Museum, British Museum and Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester.Ospovat's brother-in-law was the sculptor and potter Reginald Fairfax-Wells. [Ben Uri Research Unit.] Please contact seller,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas customers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! ** N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch, especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. ** This item offered P+p included.Offer available UK only,unless indicated otherwise. ** ** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always.

UK,Folio HB,1st edn.
Not SIGNED.

Bibliophile Bookbase for antiquarian books, maps and prints.