Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$63.64 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Ex-library book, usual markings. Clean copy in good condition. Quick dispatch from UK seller.
Seller: Stephen White Books, Bradford, United Kingdom
Price: US$96.62 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Octavo, 48 pages (first two blank, last one the colophon). Slightly overlapping wrappers, sewn; a few gathering a little loose and page edges frayed.
Seller: Roe and Moore, London, United Kingdom
Roger Fry. Architectural Heresies Of A Painter. Chatto & Windus, London, 1921.
Price: US$100.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition (NAP, 1921 on the title page. 'A Lecture Delivered At The Royal Institute Of British Architects, May 20th, 1921.' A rather rare little book, 48 pages long. The speech begins with what certainly appears to be a typo: 'I am come before you as a sheep to the slaughter, as a victim to the altar. If I am allowed to bleat for an hour or so before the sacrifice is consummated, I know that to be part of the ritual, and that it will only defer for a time the moment when I shall be utterly devoured. I see that my fate is a foregone conclusion when I reflect that you have all studied and practiced architecture as your life's work, whereas I am but a dilettante and an amateur. Still, I suppose some other purpose than suicidal mania must have drawn my steps here this afternoon, I must have hoped for some result other than my self-immolation. I think my hope is founded on the fact that, however much we may differ, you will probably agree with me that all is not well with modern architecture.' Odd, that the 'am' in the first sentence of the book was not removed (or the 'come' revised to 'coming'), but it certainly reinforces the originality of the book. You can see the covers in the photos. I don't think there are any stains or soiling, perhaps that little line off the bottom edge of the front just adjacent to the spine, hard to tell. More clearly, there is toning at the margins. There is a very light crease at the front bottom corner and at the rear bottom corner what I thought was a crease is actually a small tear. The book would be nearly perfect were not for the detachment of the covers. They were partially attached when I began to this the book but after sitting idly in my bookcase for many years, they were not up to the sudden activity. The pages (and the textblock), however, are quite solidly bound. I didn't see any cracks or spaces between any of the pages. They are reasonably tight. They are also exceptionally clean. I didn't see any conspicuous soiling, just a few specks off the bottom edge of a few pages. I'm also not seeing much by way of creasing, just a few of those thin fissure-like creases off the top edge of a few pages. There are no markings in the book. There are no attachments. There is a small signature on the first front end paper ('Anthony Fox'). I wonder who that was. He also wrote what may possibly be a date 'March 42', or the name of a place and '42', a little hard to tell. There are no other names and no other writing to be found anywhere in the book. My Good Plus rating is a compromise between a Near Fine interior and the detached covers which if repaired would present quite nicely. I forgot to mention that, not unsurprisingly given the very good condition of the pages, one pair of them are uncut. The only other non-library 1921 first edition for sale on the Internet is priced above $200.00. Due to the detachment of the covers (a clean detachment), I am pricing the book at about 40% of that price. 'Roger Fry was an English painter and critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent developments in French painting, to which he gave the name Post-Impressionism. He was the first figure to raise public awareness of modern art in Britain, and emphasized the formal properties of paintings over the "associated ideas" conjured in the viewer by their representational content. Fry was described by the art historian Kenneth Clark as "incomparably the greatest influence on taste since Ruskin. In so far as taste can be changed by one man, it was changed by Roger Fry." '
Seller: Rareeclectic, pound ridge, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$225.45 + shipping
Description: First edition. Octavo. 47 pages. Sewn wrappers.Ownership signature on first blank. Covers slightly creased at the edges. Spine rubbed. Very good. Scarce.
Seller: Peter Ellis, Bookseller, ABA, ILAB, London, United Kingdom