Max Beerbohm — Fifty Caricatures

London, William Heinemann, 1913. First edition. Cloth. A smart first edition of this collection of caricatures from English parodist and caricaturist Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm. First edition. Illustrated with forty-eight tipped in plates and two standard plates. The fifty caricatures appear on the rectos only, numbers one to forty-eight being executed in half-tone and mounted on brown paper, while numbers forty-nine to fifty are line drawings on white paper. Collated complete. Beerbohm's fifth book of caricatures, including images of Arthur Balfour, George Bernard Shaw, Lloyd George, Joseph Pennell, Lord Rosebery, John Masefield, George Grossmith, Jr. H. B. Irving, Auguste Rodin, Thomas Hardy, Bonar Law and Enrico Caruso and a collection of politicians of the time. Illustrated by Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm, an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist under the signature Max who first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist. Previously held in the libraries of George Douglas Howard Cole, an English political theorist, economist, historian, and novelist, and his wife Dame Margaret Isabel Cole, an English socialist politician, writer and poet. They wrote several detective stories jointly. In the original green cloth binding with gilt. Externally, smart with light rubbing and fading to the extremities. Boards slightly cocked with the odd small mark. Library ink mark to the tail of the spine. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are very bright and clean with light age toning to the endpapers. Previous owners' and library bookplate to the front pastedown. With library ink stamp to the front endpaper, half-title, title page, contents page, rear endpaper, and foredge. With bookseller's label to the front pastedown. Very Good . Ill.: Max Beerbohm. Very Good .