From Sea to Sea and other Sketches Letters of Travel, Bombay edition [fine binding, J.Paul Getty association (?)] Rudyard Kipling. Publication Date: 1913. Condition: Fine

Title: From Sea to Sea and other Sketches Letters ...

Publisher: London. Macmillan and Co., Limited.

Publication Date: 1913

Binding: Hardcover

Book Condition: Fine

Edition: Bombay Edition

1913 First edition Thus Bombay edition limited to 1050 copies, two volumes. Printed pages: vol I: xv, [1], 350, [1]; Vol II: x, 346, [1]. These two volumes, complete in themselves, formed Vol IV and V of the 26 volume set of The Bombay Edition of the works of Rudyard Kipling published between 1913 and 1927. The Bombay edition was limited to 1050 copies and was printed by R & R Clark from the Florence Press type on special handmade paper with generous margins. Dark blue and black printed title-pages and dark-blue initial letters. 25 x 18 cm. Contemporary full dark-brown gilt decorated morocco with gilt decorated morocco inner paste-downs and silk moire facing end-pages by The Harcourt Bindery. Front and rear boards have gilt corner and border decorations surrounding a central gilt elephant and swastika motif. Spines have five gilt decorated raised bands, red and gilt decorated compartments, and gilt lettering that includes the words Bombay Edition to the heel. Inside, the front and rear paste-down areas are also in full gilt decorated morocco, and come with a central dark-green panel having a central gilt monogram (J.P.G.). Gilt outer edges, which include the outer edges at head, and gilt tail and inner edges. Blocks have a gilt top edge and rough-cut fore and lower edges, and include a silk ribbon marker. Condition: Fine overall. Volumes in neat, unread condition with bright gilt and crisp leaves. The only significant blemishes are some minor spine fade to both volumes and to the rear board of first voume, which also has very mild and gently rounded bump to lower front fore-corner - barely noticeable - please see photos. Despite the very mild sunning to rear board of volume two, the volumes remain very attractive as well as strikingly fresh in appearance as the year they were bound probably well over a century ago. Provenance: (from the gilt hand-tooled J.P.G. monograms) possibly a gift to Jean Paul Getty 1892-1976), known widely as J. Paul Getty, the American-born British petrol-industrialist, and patriarch of the Getty family. Literary critic Douglas Kerr wrote: "[Kipling] is still an author who can inspire passionate disagreement and his place in literary and cultural history is far from settled. But as the age of the European empires recedes, he is recognised as an incomparable, if controversial, interpreter of how empire was experienced. That, and an increasing recognition of his extraordinary narrative gifts, make him a force to be reckoned with.". Bookseller Inventory # 5028