Phil May's Sketch-Book: Fifty Cartoons
London: Chatto & Windus, 1895. First edition. Hardcover. Folio. VIIIpp (Text), L (50) leaves (Plates). Original illustrated burgundy cloth, with gold lettering on spine, and black lettering on front cover. Top edge gilt. Title page in red and black lettering. Vignette on title. Delightful album containing 50 humorous pen and ink sketches by Philip ('Phil') William May*. Binding darkened and heavily rubbed along edges. Head and tail of spine frayed. Book block starting. Minor age-toning along paper margin. Binding in overall poor to fair, interior in good to good+, plates in very good condition. fair to g. Item #38381
* Philip ('Phil') William May (1864-1903) was a draftsman, caricaturist and illustrator greatly influenced by Edward Linley Sambourne. He began his career as a scene painter, actor and pantomime costume designer, and contributed drawings to the Yorkshire Gossip, before he was 'discovered' by the actor Lionel Brough and worked for Society and St Stephen's Review. In Australia from 1885 to 1888 he contributed to the Sydney Bulletin. He then moved to Paris to study art. By 1890 he had returned to London and was anxious to join James Whistler's Chelsea Arts Club. He was elected in 1891. From 1892 to 1903 May produced Phil May's Winter Annual, which established his reputation as a caricaturist of Bohemian life and urban culture. He also worked for the Daily Graphic, Graphic, Illustrated London News, Sketch, Punch, English Illustrated Magazine and Pick-Me-Up. In 1895 he published Phil May's Sketch Book: Fifty Cartoons and in 1896 Guttersnipes: Fifty Original Sketches. In 1896 May was elected to the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and was appointed Chair of Punch.
Price: $45.00