The Book of Sark
TOPLIS, William A. & John OXENHAM
The Book of Sark
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1908
Medium Folio (32 x 45cm); bound in full vellum, lettered in gilt with single-ruled border and central decorative device gilt to upper board; border in blind to lower; spine fully decorated in gilt with title, author and illustrator’s names, as well as publisher’s to foot; retaining the original ties to the upper board (lacking to lower); upper edge gilt, else untrimmed; pp. [iv], vii-xi, [iii], 3-98, [ii]; with 21 pages of coloured plates, tipped to black card and each behind captioned tissue guards; the vellum lightly splayed, as is common, with light mottling and spotting; internally for the most part clean, with some faint spotting and light staining mostly affecting the fore-edge, occasionally extending to the outer margin, only marginally so; plate 11 with finger-shaped chip affecting mount only; plate 18 with two corner creases; an excellent, very good to near-fine copy, retaining two of the original ties. Provenance: Book plate of Captain Richard Campbell, OBE, RN, to the front paste-down.
First, limited edition. One of just 500 copies, of which 350 only were bound in vellum, numbered and signed by both the artist and illustrator, this copy no. 258. Our example comes together with an additional two mounted plates on cream card, duplicating 9 (“A Monarch of the Shore”) and 21 (“Les Autelets - Sark”), signed and titled by Toplis in pencil.
An attractive example of this lavishly illustrated publication, which brings together 21 reproductions of paintings at the Royal Academy Exhibit of Watercolours and Oils. William Toplis (1857-1942) was twenty-six years old when he first arrived on Sark in the Channel Islands for a family holiday. Immediately falling in love with the island and its peoples, he sent for his possessions, and remained there for the following sixty years, despite initially struggling to communicate with the islanders, who spoke Sarkese (also known as Patois). It was during his time there that he also met and befriended John Oxenham (William Arthur Dunkerley), the English novelist and poet who here provides the sweeping, descriptive and historic pages which accompany the plates.
The images show harbours, caves, rock formations and various scenes from the island’s coastline, including the now-famous ‘Venus Pool’, a painting which was rejected numerous times from the Royal Academy before being finally accepted in 1910. The rock pool, which appears only at low tide, took the artist over a decade to complete, and subsequently led to a huge up-turn in tourism to the island. Another plate, entitled ‘souffleur’, shows a torrent of water propelled into the air above a stormy sea, and is described thus: “The swelling waves bottle up the air on the cave, compress it beyond bearing until something has to give way, and the tortured air rushes out with a roar like artillery, carrying the water with it in clouds of spray, and shaking the upper cliffs with the forceful agony of its escape… On a clear day, with the afternoon sun lightening still more the sparkling emerald green of the waves - a wonder of vital colour only to be fully realised by actual sight—and playing on the spray of the souffleur, the spectacle is a unique and beautiful one.”
Toplis was, by many accounts, a cantankerous and litigious character, who ruffled more than a few feathers during his stay on Sark, after the First World War attempting to purchase the smaller private island of Brecqhou from the Seigneur of Sark, and making elaborate plans with separatist intentions. Nonetheless, the plates in this volume show the record of a skilled artist who devoted the majority of his life to imortalising the beauty of the island’s coastline, with great success.
Scarce with these properties.
TOPLIS, William A. & John OXENHAM
The Book of Sark
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1908
Medium Folio (32 x 45cm); bound in full vellum, lettered in gilt with single-ruled border and central decorative device gilt to upper board; border in blind to lower; spine fully decorated in gilt with title, author and illustrator’s names, as well as publisher’s to foot; retaining the original ties to the upper board (lacking to lower); upper edge gilt, else untrimmed; pp. [iv], vii-xi, [iii], 3-98, [ii]; with 21 pages of coloured plates, tipped to black card and each behind captioned tissue guards; the vellum lightly splayed, as is common, with light mottling and spotting; internally for the most part clean, with some faint spotting and light staining mostly affecting the fore-edge, occasionally extending to the outer margin, only marginally so; plate 11 with finger-shaped chip affecting mount only; plate 18 with two corner creases; an excellent, very good to near-fine copy, retaining two of the original ties. Provenance: Book plate of Captain Richard Campbell, OBE, RN, to the front paste-down.
First, limited edition. One of just 500 copies, of which 350 only were bound in vellum, numbered and signed by both the artist and illustrator, this copy no. 258. Our example comes together with an additional two mounted plates on cream card, duplicating 9 (“A Monarch of the Shore”) and 21 (“Les Autelets - Sark”), signed and titled by Toplis in pencil.
An attractive example of this lavishly illustrated publication, which brings together 21 reproductions of paintings at the Royal Academy Exhibit of Watercolours and Oils. William Toplis (1857-1942) was twenty-six years old when he first arrived on Sark in the Channel Islands for a family holiday. Immediately falling in love with the island and its peoples, he sent for his possessions, and remained there for the following sixty years, despite initially struggling to communicate with the islanders, who spoke Sarkese (also known as Patois). It was during his time there that he also met and befriended John Oxenham (William Arthur Dunkerley), the English novelist and poet who here provides the sweeping, descriptive and historic pages which accompany the plates.
The images show harbours, caves, rock formations and various scenes from the island’s coastline, including the now-famous ‘Venus Pool’, a painting which was rejected numerous times from the Royal Academy before being finally accepted in 1910. The rock pool, which appears only at low tide, took the artist over a decade to complete, and subsequently led to a huge up-turn in tourism to the island. Another plate, entitled ‘souffleur’, shows a torrent of water propelled into the air above a stormy sea, and is described thus: “The swelling waves bottle up the air on the cave, compress it beyond bearing until something has to give way, and the tortured air rushes out with a roar like artillery, carrying the water with it in clouds of spray, and shaking the upper cliffs with the forceful agony of its escape… On a clear day, with the afternoon sun lightening still more the sparkling emerald green of the waves - a wonder of vital colour only to be fully realised by actual sight—and playing on the spray of the souffleur, the spectacle is a unique and beautiful one.”
Toplis was, by many accounts, a cantankerous and litigious character, who ruffled more than a few feathers during his stay on Sark, after the First World War attempting to purchase the smaller private island of Brecqhou from the Seigneur of Sark, and making elaborate plans with separatist intentions. Nonetheless, the plates in this volume show the record of a skilled artist who devoted the majority of his life to imortalising the beauty of the island’s coastline, with great success.
Scarce with these properties.
TOPLIS, William A. & John OXENHAM
The Book of Sark
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1908
Medium Folio (32 x 45cm); bound in full vellum, lettered in gilt with single-ruled border and central decorative device gilt to upper board; border in blind to lower; spine fully decorated in gilt with title, author and illustrator’s names, as well as publisher’s to foot; retaining the original ties to the upper board (lacking to lower); upper edge gilt, else untrimmed; pp. [iv], vii-xi, [iii], 3-98, [ii]; with 21 pages of coloured plates, tipped to black card and each behind captioned tissue guards; the vellum lightly splayed, as is common, with light mottling and spotting; internally for the most part clean, with some faint spotting and light staining mostly affecting the fore-edge, occasionally extending to the outer margin, only marginally so; plate 11 with finger-shaped chip affecting mount only; plate 18 with two corner creases; an excellent, very good to near-fine copy, retaining two of the original ties. Provenance: Book plate of Captain Richard Campbell, OBE, RN, to the front paste-down.
First, limited edition. One of just 500 copies, of which 350 only were bound in vellum, numbered and signed by both the artist and illustrator, this copy no. 258. Our example comes together with an additional two mounted plates on cream card, duplicating 9 (“A Monarch of the Shore”) and 21 (“Les Autelets - Sark”), signed and titled by Toplis in pencil.
An attractive example of this lavishly illustrated publication, which brings together 21 reproductions of paintings at the Royal Academy Exhibit of Watercolours and Oils. William Toplis (1857-1942) was twenty-six years old when he first arrived on Sark in the Channel Islands for a family holiday. Immediately falling in love with the island and its peoples, he sent for his possessions, and remained there for the following sixty years, despite initially struggling to communicate with the islanders, who spoke Sarkese (also known as Patois). It was during his time there that he also met and befriended John Oxenham (William Arthur Dunkerley), the English novelist and poet who here provides the sweeping, descriptive and historic pages which accompany the plates.
The images show harbours, caves, rock formations and various scenes from the island’s coastline, including the now-famous ‘Venus Pool’, a painting which was rejected numerous times from the Royal Academy before being finally accepted in 1910. The rock pool, which appears only at low tide, took the artist over a decade to complete, and subsequently led to a huge up-turn in tourism to the island. Another plate, entitled ‘souffleur’, shows a torrent of water propelled into the air above a stormy sea, and is described thus: “The swelling waves bottle up the air on the cave, compress it beyond bearing until something has to give way, and the tortured air rushes out with a roar like artillery, carrying the water with it in clouds of spray, and shaking the upper cliffs with the forceful agony of its escape… On a clear day, with the afternoon sun lightening still more the sparkling emerald green of the waves - a wonder of vital colour only to be fully realised by actual sight—and playing on the spray of the souffleur, the spectacle is a unique and beautiful one.”
Toplis was, by many accounts, a cantankerous and litigious character, who ruffled more than a few feathers during his stay on Sark, after the First World War attempting to purchase the smaller private island of Brecqhou from the Seigneur of Sark, and making elaborate plans with separatist intentions. Nonetheless, the plates in this volume show the record of a skilled artist who devoted the majority of his life to imortalising the beauty of the island’s coastline, with great success.
Scarce with these properties.