http://www.treloars.com/news/book-auction Lot 232 STEPHENS, Alfred George (editor) Anzac Memorial Sydney, Returned Soldiers Association [of New South Wales] (and printed by William Brooks and Company), 25 April 1916 [first quarto edition]. Quarto, 242 (first blank) pages printed on Whatman paper with decorative gilt borders throughout, with 3 illustrations, 22 pages of plates (from photographs) and an original full-page watercolour by Will Donald on page 114 (a head-and-shoulders portrait, captioned ‘Anzac’, different in every copy). Original full polished calf, all edges gilt; a unique (unsigned) designer binding, hand-lettered and extensively hand-tooled with two coloured pendant sprays of eucalyptus in Art Nouveau style, within a coloured border on the front panel (the colours now a little muted); the back cover is blind-tooled with hundreds of tiny eucalyptus flowers; this design is repeated in three panels on the spine, without any lettering. Spine sunned; leather lightly rubbed at the extremities, with two tiny indentations to the front cover; bottom corner of the front endpaper a little creased; foxing to the inside surfaces of the (lined) flyleaves, the binder’s blank leaf at each end, several plates and the adjacent leaves; original ribbon bookmark sunned and frayed where exposed top and bottom; an excellent copy of a superb production. This is copy number 28 of only 50 copies of the ‘Royal Edition’, initialled by the editor in his characteristic purple ink (so he is surely responsible for the tiny purple ink smudge on page 89!). The illustrations are the same as in the octavo editions, with the exception of the small image of HMS Queen Elizabeth (on page 224 of the octavo editions); however, the placement of some of them has changed. The text is substantially the same, but partially reset to accommodate the larger format. However, the formes are still octavo format, printed on quarto paper with the running titles raised. The Editor’s Note (in six paragraphs on page 238) differs in several ways from the first state of the first octavo edition (which in turn differs from later states). The first four paragraphs are identical, as is the fifth one up to (IV). The new text now reads ‘in quarto, on Whatman paper, edition limited to 50 copies’. Deleted from the sixth paragraph is ‘of the Superior Editions’; the word ‘materials’ is now singular; ‘owner’ is now ‘Owner’ and ‘possibly’ has been inserted before ‘may become’. The last (one-line) paragraph has been deleted, as has the date. Other minor differences have been noticed in passing: sometimes the name of an author given in full in one format will be identified by initials in the other (thus, the quarto edition has ‘R. Crawford’ on page 8, the octavo edition has ‘R.C.’ on page [6]). The main difference between the octavo and quarto formats is the absence of advertisements in the latter (60 pages including the index to the advertisements). The best contemporary description of this book comes from the verso of the dustwrapper of the 1917 edition of Anzac Memorial. [The] ROYAL EDITION, as presented by the Returned Soldiers Association to the King, the President of the French Republic, the President of the United States, and the Kings of Allied Nations [the Tsar of Russia, King of Serbia, the King of the Belgians, the King of Italy and the King of Romania]. Edition limited to Fifty Copies, numbered. Demy 4to., printed on Whatman paper, with page borders in gold; bound in worked leather; in slide case. Each copy contains an original painting by Will Donald, Head of an Anzac. Price of remaining copies £10. 10s. This is twice the price at which it was originally offered, and if upwards of eight copies had been sent as gifts to the Allied Heads of State, then just over 40 copies were available for sale. A year later, copies were still available. Interestingly, that informative dustwrapper has much to say in its blurb on the much expanded second edition, running to 512 pages, concluding with the range of editions available: ‘Royal Edition, limited to 50 copies, £10. 10s.; Edition de Luxe, £2. 2s.; Superior Edition, 10s. 6d.; Popular Edition, 6s.’. It would appear from this statement that aRoyal [Second] Edition was planned if the demand was there; clearly it wasn’t. This second edition dustwrapper also provides a valuable insight into the contemporary appreciation of Will Donald’s artwork. These ‘Boys of the Anzac Breed.... typical heads of Men of Anzac … the most characteristic and artistic representations of Australian soldiers.’ Not in Dornbusch (but see 204-207 for other editions); Fielding and O’Neill, page 239 (1917 edition only). [$5000-6000]

• published: 20 Sep 2014
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