This Easton Press limited edition has a strict 400-copy run, lavish deluxe craftsmanship, and the inclusion of all 180 historic Gustave Doré illustrations.
Easton Press, Norwalk CT. 2011. "London: A Pilgrimage” Gustave Dore, Blanchard Jerrold. Slipcased Deluxe Limited Edition. Luxuriously bound with genuine fine leather and stamped on the spine with 22kt gold. Limited to 400 Hand Numbered Copies with matching numbers certificate. Featuring all 180 original illustrations, 22kt gold spine accents, and a custom slipcase.
Oversized (11 3/4" x 14 3/4") facsimile recreation of the historic 1872 Victorian masterpiece.
This is number 306 of 400.
Edition Details and Physical Specifications
Artwork: Includes 54 full-page plates with hand-applied tissue overlays and 126 text vignettes by artist Gustave Doré.
Binding: Bound in genuine leather with a raised hubbed spine stamped in genuine 22kt gold.
Design Elements: Printed on acid-neutral paper with two-color text printing, Smyth-sewn binding, printed marbled endsheets, and a custom storage slipcase.
Limitation: Hand-numbered limited run of only 400 copies worldwide.
Historical Background
Original Publication: First published in 1872 by the French artist Doré and British journalist Blanchard Jerrold.
Content: Documents 19th-century Victorian life in London, spanning from elite high society to the stark, impoverished depths of the industrial metropolis.
Features
- Leather-bound Edition
- Limited to 400 hand-numbered copies.
- 22kt gold deeply inlaid on the "hubbed" spine.
- Superbly printed on acid-neutral paper that lasts for generations.
- Sewn pages — not just glued like ordinary books.
- Handsome marbled end-pages and a satin-ribbon page marker.
- Printed and bound in the USA. Imported materials.
- Rigorous inspection at every stage ensures adherence to our exacting standards.
- Superb craftsmanship and commitment to quality.
London: A Pilgrimage
London: A Pilgrimage is a book first published by Grant & Co in 1872, with text by the English journalist William Blanchard Jerrold and illustrations by the French artist Gustave Doré. It was originally published in 13 parts, with 191 pages and illustrations, and then serialised in Harper's Weekly. It has been described as a populist picture book. [citation needed] Some of Doré's illustrations were later copied by Vincent van Gogh.
Doré's 1866 illustrations for the Bible had been a success, and a Dore Gallery had opened on Bond Street. In 1868, Jerrold proposed the work as a portrait of London, inspired by Thomas Rowlandson's Microcosm of London, and work began in 1869.
Doré was commissioned to create the illustrations by the publisher Grant and Company, receiving an advance of £10,000 for each of the four projected years of work. His contract required the Paris-based artist to visit London for 3 months each year, and make 250 drawings. The author and artist spent days touring the city together, often accompanied by plain clothes policemen. Jerrold led his friend Doré through the "shadows and sunlight of the great world of London". His 250 pen and ink drawings, often with dramatic chiaroscuro, were engraved on wood by a team that included Paul Jonnard (1840–1902).
The title page shows Old Father Thames and a lion beside the river, with a bridge and moored sailing vessels. It starts with a quotation from William Wordsworth's poem "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802: "Earth has not anything to show more fair!".
Its 21 chapters start with the commercial life on and beside the River Thames with "London Bridge", continue with "The Busy River-Side", "The Docks", and "Above Bridge to Westminster", and the leisure activities with "All London at a Boat Race", and "The Race", moving to Surrey for "The Derby" and "London on the Downs", then back to west London for "The West End" and "In the Season". It continues with "By the Abbey", the green spaces of the Royal Parks in "London, Under Green Leaves", and "With the Beasts" at London Zoo.
It returns to more mundane everyday life in "Work-a-day London", "Humble Industries", and brewing beer in "The Town of Malt"; the Old Bailey gaol at "Under Lock and Key", continuing to the East End of London in "Whitechapel and Thereabouts", the markets including Billingsgate, Covent Garden and "In the Market Places", museums, galleries, theatres and street entertainments of "London at Play", and the orphanages, hospitals and almshouses in "London Charity".
The work was severely criticised when it was published. Doré did not like to sketch in public, so his illustrations have many small errors; and Jerrold's text is light and superficial. It focuses on the deprivation and squalor of the poorest residents of London. It has been considered an early work of social journalism, documenting the high and low society of Victorian London in the mid to late 19th century.