FIRE AND SWORD IN THE SUDAN. A PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF FIGHTING AND SERVING THE DERVISHES. 1879-1895.
Translated By Lieut.-Col. F. R.
- London: Edward Arnold, 1897.
- thick 8vo
- Publishers maroon cloth with gilt decorations and bevelled edges, top edge gilt
- 636 pages
Price: $500.00 other currencies
Order Nr. 137577
Fifth edition. Frontispiece and illustrations throughout by R. Talbot Kelly. Folding map at the end. The spine is lightly marked and edges very lightly rubbed, else really lovely clean, crisp copy. Unusual in this condition and with an interesting ownership.
Provenance: with the bookplate of Laurence W. Hodson (1864-1933) at the bottom of the front pastedown. Hodson was a founder of Birmingham University, patron of the Guild of Handicraft, and a friend of William Morris. He was also a well-known collector of pre-Raphaelite paintings. Hodson's home, Compton Hall, has the wallpaper refurbished by Morris & Co. in 1896. Presumably Hobson did this at the same time as he engaged William Morris and Company to redesign the interior in 1895-6. These decorations are still largely in place. In 1902 Hodson served as Chairman of the Fine Art Committee for the Wolverhampton Art and Industrial Exhibition. His booklabel was printed by the Kelmscott Press after Morris' death, using his Golden Type (cf. Peterson, A Bibliography of the Kelmscott Press, D10.8). Hodson's library was auctioned at Bloomsbury Auctions in London in 2013.