Description
From the Limited Editions Club, The Travels of Marco Polo, from the library of California printmaker William H. Wilke.
Octavo, [two volumes], xl, [1], 226pp; [4]; 227-477pp, [1]. Publisher’s black buckram, gilt titles over orange labels on front covers and spines, top edges gilt, title pages printed in orange and black. Light blemish to gilt topstain of Volume I, else fine. Illustrated throughout in color by Nikolai Fyodorovitch Lapshin. Housed in the publisher’s slipcase, notable shelf wear and rubbing to panels. One of 1,500 numbered copies signed by Nikolai Fyodorovitch Lapshin on the limitation page, this being number 459. (LEC, Newman & Wiche, 56)
William Hancock Wilke (1879-1958) was a San Francisco-born painter, printmaker, designer, and illustrator. Wilke illustrated the 1931 Limited Editions Club “Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin,” printed by John Henry Nash. His archive is held by UC Santa Barbara Special Collections.
