MENPES, Mortimer, Justin McCARTHY and Mrs Campbell PRAED

The Grey River [with illustrations by Mortimer Menpes]

London, Seeley and Co., 1889.

Imperial quarto, iv, 87 pages plus 12 signed original drypoint etchings (each one tipped in between an unpaginated caption leaf and a blank leaf). The etchings are approximately 150 x 110 mm or the reverse, printed on tinted paper measuring approximately 380 x 270 mm.

Gilt-lettered cream cloth mottled, stained and a little worn, with minor surface loss to silverfish, and a few moderate scratches to the rear cover; edges uncut, with some inconspicuous nibbling to a small section of most leading edges; flyleaves heavily offset and a little chipped; endpapers foxed, with moderate foxing to the first and last few leaves, and only light scattered foxing elsewhere; inner hinges cracked, with the rear one quite weak; minor signs of use and age; one etched sheet a little chipped on the top and leading edges, but well clear of the printed surface; overall a decent copy, with the etchings in excellent condition.

The front flyleaf is inscribed 'To dear Ethel with love from R.M. Praed. Dec. 1913'. This is a very belated gift inscription from the co-author, Mrs [Rosa] Campbell Praed, nee Rosa Murray-Prior (the signature matches the facsimile signature at the foot of the Introductory Note on page iv) to her younger step-sister, Ethel. Ethel Nora Butler, nee Murray-Prior, was the wife of William Royston (Roy) Butler, the younger brother of Arthur Graham Butler, author of the acclaimed three-volume 'Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services in the War, 1914-1918' (1930-1943). The catalogue raisonne, 'The Etched Works of Mortimer Menpes (1855-1938)', by Gary Morgan (Adelaide, 2012), describes this work as the expatriate artist's 'first major publishing venture, the first of what was to become a major part of his life and a preview to the way he later approached the publication of his later travel books'. The extensive text was by the expatriate author Rosa Campbell Praed (1851-1935) and the Irish politician, historian and writer, Justin McCarthy (1830-1912), a friend with whom she also co-wrote several novels. The book was published in a limited edition of only 230 copies, each priced at five guineas. Unlike most of the later books, all of the plates in this work are original etchings, individually signed in pencil ('Menpes imp'). Morgan 135 to 146 (with a full quarto page, including an illustration, devoted to each etching).