1929 The Prince

Description

Fine Binding, Leather Binding, Limited Edition, Very Scarce

Number ten of ten copies printed on vellum.

Illustrated with a photogravure portrait frontispiece of Machiavelli, retaining the original tissue guard.

A beautifully presented and very scarce edition of Niccolo Machiavelli's instructional guide for new princes and royals, credited with bringing the pejorative term 'Machiavellian' into common parlance.

Derived from Edward Dacres's 1640 English translation of the work, and with an introduction from W. E. C. Baynes.

With the former owner's inscription 'With regards, Ralph Poole, Feb. 1948' to the head of a front blank.

Loosely inserted is a letter from Poole, with the letterhead 50, Bedford Square, London. Poole addresses a 'Mr John', and discusses his desire to 'make similar token gifts to your brothers'. He discusses the merits of giving these brothers 'an autographed copy of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, which as you know is scarce and much sought after in the states' and a 'Birket Foster watercolour', and 'some old Flemish silver'. He closes the letter with the entreaty 'I will be grateful if you will help me in this matter without mentioning it to your brothers'.

A wonderfully scarce and beautifully produced Limited Edition work.