A Portrait of Lady Hester

Marlborough: Libanus Press, 1987. No. 39 of 300 copies, this being one of 50 deluxe copies. 10 wood engravings with an extra loose suite of 8 of the wood engravings by Robert Gibbings printed on japanese paper. Printed in Monotype Bodoni italic on BFK Rives rag paper. Pp. 31 [1]. Tall 8vo., bound by Smith Settle in quarter black morocco, patterned paper covered boards, silver lettering to spine, lower edge uncut, housed in the original black card slipcase with the prints in black paper chemise. Fine.||Alexander William Kinglake’s portrait of Lady Hester Stanhope, originally published as a chapter in ‘Eothen’. Lady Hester went to the Middle East in 1810, where she lead an archaeological expedition to Ashkelon in 1815, the first modern excavation in the history of Holy Land archaeology. She died a recluse, residing in a ruined monastery in Djoun, Lebanon.
With Gibbings superb wood engravings which were originally created for a Kynoch Press publication in the 1940s.|Kirkus, Robert Gibbings Bibliography, 19. One of 50 deluxe copies, with an extra suite of wood engravings by Gibbings