The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book. [Fore-edge Painting].

KIPLING, Rudyard.

$1,800.00

Item Number: 139448

London: Macmillan, 1978.

Finely bound edition of both volumes of The Jungle Book, with an exceptional fore-edge painting. Octavo, bound in full morocco by Bayntun Bindery, gilt titles to the spine, raised bands, all edges gilt, engraved frontispiece with tissue guard present. Illustrated by J. L. Kipling, W.H. Drake and P. Frenzeny. In near fine condition. Rare and desirable.

The Jungle Book is a collection of fables which provide moral instruction by using animals anthropomorphically. Each story begins and ends with a verse, and the original publications contain some illustrations created by Rudyard's father John Lockwood Kipling. The inspiration for the book is evident. Kipling was born in India, and he spent his childhood there. Interestingly, Kipling wrote these stories when he lived in Vermont. The Jungle Book is used to develop the morale of the junior element of the Scouting movement, "The Cub Scouts". The name of the head wolf "Akela" has been traditionally given to each Cub Scout pack leader. At least fifteen movies were released based on Kipling's stories, beginning with Elephant Boy in 1937. A live-action anticipated version of Jungle Book will be released in October of 2018 by Warner Brothers. The term 'fore-edge painting' can refer to any painted decoration on the fore-edges of the leaves of a book, such as was not uncommon in the 15th and early 16th centuries, particularly in Italy. The term is most commonly used, however, for an English technique quite widely practiced in the second half of the 17th century in London and Edinburgh, and popularized in the 18th century by John Brindley and, in particular, Edwards of Halifax, whereby the fore-edge of the book, very slightly fanned out and then held fast, is decorated with painted views, or conversation pieces. The edges are then squared up and gilded in the ordinary way, so that the painting remains concealed while the book is closed: fan out the edges and it reappears. The technique was practiced by a few other English binders in the late 18th and 19th centuries, and a certain number of undoubted examples survive. The majority of extant examples of fore-edge paintings date to the late 19th and early 20th century on reproductions of books originally published in the early 19th century, including the present volume.