George Washington. [Cosway].

HARRISON, James A. [George Washington; Cosway].

Item Number: 122748

New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1906.

Bound in full crushed morocco Cosway-style binding by Rivière & Son. With portrait miniature of George Washington on the front panel and Martha Washington on the rear panel, front and rear panels with single gilt filler border; spine in six compartments with five raised bands, a decorative panel in the rest, turn-ins gilt, all edges gilt, moire silk endpapers. In fine condition. An exceptional presentation.

Cosway bindings (named for renowned 19th-century English miniaturist Richard Cosway) were first commissioned in the early 1900s by London booksellers Sotheran from the famous Rivière bindery, who employed Miss C.B. Currie to faithfully imitate Cosway's detailed watercolor style of portraiture. These delicate miniature paintings, often on ivory, were set into the covers or doublures of richly-tooled bindings and protected by a thin pane of glass. The present volume includes a printed leaf inserted at the front that states, "This is No. 851 of the Cosway Bindings invented by J.H. Stonehouse, with Miniatures on Ivory by Miss Currie." Both Stonehouse and Currie have signed this page.