Joseph Cundall: a Victorian Publisher Notes on his life and a check-list of his books.<br />First edition.

Pinner: Private Libraries Association, 1976. First edition, 1976. Hardback. viii, 96pp. Red cloth boards with gilt titles to spine. Top edge tinted red. Dust jacket in a protective sleeve. Joseph Cundall was notable as a publisher, editor, author, book-designer, and pioneer photographer. Born in 1818, he was trained as a printer but became a publisher in his early twenties and produced many of the most attractive and popular illustrated books of the 1850s and 1860s. His career as a photographer was also important, culminating in 1871 when the British Government sent him to Bayeaux to organize the first photographic record of the famous tapestry. In 1842, at the age of 25, Cundall became publisher of the Home Treasury series of children's books, conceived and edited by Henry Cole (who a few years later was one of the creators of the 1851 Great Exhibition). These are still some of the most beautiful children's books ever made. Cundall became bankrupt in 1849, and thereafter worked for other publishers on a freelance basis, mostly anonymously. For this reason his achievement has never been adequately recognized. In addition to four colour plates, the text is illustrated with upwards of 50 black and white illustrations, many taken from extremely rare or unique originals, or from proofs in Cundall family collections. Book in very good condition. Dust jacket very good and unclipped. A little light soiling and a few very small nicks. Some minor creasing around extremities of spine.