The Uttermost Farthing: A Savant’s Vendetta WITH A SHRUNKEN HEAD DRAWING

First US Edition inscribed to the bookbinder Alfred de Sauty, then working in Chicago, and bearing De Sauty’s drawing ‘Sketched at Field Museums (Chicago) from S American specimens of human head reduced by special treatment’ - the type of exhibit found in the collection belonging to the novel’s protagonist, the criminal anthropologist, Humphrey Challoner. The red cloth binding also incorporates gilt and black stamped faces designed by Edwin J Prittle. De Sauty was a distinguished English bookbinder employed during this period by the American firm R R Donnelley and sons.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Boards in good condition; bumped to corners; a little rubbed; scuffed to spine top and tail. Book block a little shaken but remains sound; just cracking over rear leaves. Tape reinforcement along gutter between verso of flyleaf and recto of frontispiece. Unmarked throughout. Illustrated by H Weston Taylor. Inscribed by author to front free endpaper ‘Alfred de Sauty with best wishes from his friend R Austin Freeman. 23rd August 1923’; drawing opposite. 296 pp.