John Ames Mitchell — The Villa Claudia

New York, Life Publishing Company , 1904 . First edition. Cloth. The first edition of this charming novel set in Italy written by John Ames Mitchell, with the original, vanishingly scarce dust wrapper. The first edition.Bound in the publisher's cloth with the vanishingly scarce dust wrapper. Written by American publisher, artist and novelist, John Ames Mitchell, who is best remembered as the co-founder and editor of 'Life' magazine. This charming novel is set in the picturesque town of Tivoli, in Italy, at the impressive Villa Claudia, a favourite destination of the author. Mitchell combines mystery, romance and humour to create an entertaining, delightful tale.Wonderfully illustrated with numerous vignettes drawn by the author, A. D. Blashfield and from ancient sources. Bound in the publisher's cloth with the original dust wrapper. Externally, lovely, with very light bumping to the extremities. Dust wrapper is worn, with significant tide mark to the front . Slight edge wear to the wrap, with tape reinforcing the extremities. Small clips to flyleaves and slight sunning to the spine of the wrap. Internally, firmly bound with bright, clean pages. Near Fine . Ill.: A. D. Blashfield. Near Fine/Good Only.