PBA Galleries

30 pp. + 33 tipped-in photogravure plates from photographs by Alvin Langdon Coburn, produced under his supervision; tissue guards. 31x23.5 cm (12¼x9¼"), two-tone cloth lettered in gilt. First Edition.

With a laid in invitation to a 1912  exhibition of many of these photographs at the Blanchard Gallery in Los Angeles. A landmark work, perhaps the most famous of Coburn's major works illustrated in photogravure, featuring portraits of the luminaries of the day, including George Bernard Shaw, G.K. Chesterton, H.G. Wells, Auguste Rodin, Henry James, Theodore Roosevelt, W.B. Yeats, Henri Mattisse, and many others. Facsimile signatures on each plate. Alvin Langdon Coburn was one of the earliest photographers to embrace the photogravure process to produce his books and exhibition prints. When he was young he studied with the American painter-printmaker Arthur Wesley Dow, who instilled in Coburn the desire to marry art and craft. Shortly thereafter, during long visits to England, he began learning the photogravure process at the London County School of Photo-Engraving. In 1909, Coburn settled in London, where he set up two hand-operated printing presses in his home.