A VISUAL JOKE - [S]Trumpets from Montparnasse

Cartoonist John Ryan’s copy (“ex John Ryan” in pencil to the front free endpaper). Although without annotations to the text itself, Ryan, best known as the creator of Captain Pugwash, has, for his own amusement, added the letter S to the beginning of the title on the dustwrapper, thus re-naming the work “Strumpets from Montparnasse”. A simple, yet bold, example of book annotation that still raises a smile more than sixty years later.

A beautifully illustrated account of the artist-author Robert Gibbing’s travels through France during the early 1950s.First edition. Publisher’s original blue cloth with gilt vignette to the upper board and titles in gilt to the spine, in dustwrapper. Illustrated with 8 colour plates and 40 wood engravings by the author. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm with a touch of rubbing to the extremities. The contents remain clean and crisp throughout. The lightly soiled, price-clipped dustwrapper with chipping to the spine ends and to head of the rear panel and with a few nicks and creases to the extremities is otherwise very good.