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David (1792) Morison Sold at Auction Prices

Engraver, Lithographer

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Mar. 22, 2005
GRAY, Francis, Fourteenth Baron (1765-1842) -- David MORISON (1792-1855). The Gray
Est: $3,000 - $4,000
GRAY, Francis, Fourteenth Baron (1765-1842) -- David MORISON (1792-1855). The Gray Library. Kinfauns Castle: Kinfauns Press, 1828. 2 o (378 x 262 mm). Letterpress text printed on rectos within red lithographed historiated borders on rectos and versos. Contemporary black morocco, sides with wide floriated border in blind, spine gilt-panelled and -lettered, edges gilt (some minor wear). Provenance: Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1773-1843, presentation inscription from Gray on separate sheet pasted within first lithographed border; his sale, part V, London, 1845, lot 2929); Edward Herbert, Earl of Powis (bookplate). PRESENTATION COPY OF THIS RARE PRIVATE CATALOGUE, INSCRIBED BY THE COLLECTOR TO THE DUKE OF SUSSEX: "To the most Illustrious Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, This Illuminated Catalogue of the Library belonging to Lord Gray at Kinfauns Castle is humbly presented, as a Specimen of Lithography executed by a young man, at Perth, in Scotland, by this ? at Highness's most Obedient and very humble Servant Gray." The Duke of Sussex formed an important and extensive collection of Bibles, manuscripts and early printed books with the assistance of bibliographer Thomas J. Pettigrew. The six sales of his collection by Evans produced only a fraction of his cost, because they took place in a depressed market (de Ricci, p.118). SCARCE: only the copy at Yale is listed in RLIN.
Christie's
Mar. 22, 2005
GRAY, Francis, Fourteenth Baron (1765-1842) -- David MORISON (1792-1855). The Gray
Est: $3,000 - $4,000
GRAY, Francis, Fourteenth Baron (1765-1842) -- David MORISON (1792-1855). The Gray Library. Kinfauns Castle: [David Morison for Kinfauns Press], 1827. 2 o (368 x 258 mm). Lithographed throughout by David Morison, lithographed text on rectos only, red lithographed historiated borders on rectos and versos. Contemporary green calf, spine gilt, gilt-lettered on upper cover, edges gilt (covers detached). APPARENTLY UNRECORDED LITHOGRAPHED CATALOGUE OF BARON GRAY'S LIBRARY. The text of the catalogue, within red historiated borders, reproduces that "Written and Sketched with One Pen" by David Morison, (dedication, signed Perth, 1827). "David Morison was of the third generation of the Morisons of Perth, who were printers of distinction in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. His father, James Morison had raised printing in Perth to a typographical level surpassed in Scotland only by the Foulis brothers in Glasgow... Of the letterpress of the text of the Catalogue [of the published edition, see following lot] the same cannot be said of Morison's use of lithography in the decorative borders, which is probably unique... By 1828 considerable use of lithography was being made in jobbing printing such as maps, music and circulars... By 1828 Morison was an accomplished lithographer. The design of the decorative effects, surrounding and even invading the text may have been suggested by medieval manuscripts... Morison drew the designs on stone personally which must have been a considerable labour as there are some fifty different border designs printed in red and suggesting the subject matter of each section of the catalogue" (Anthony Lister, "David Morison & the catalogue of Lord Gray of Kinfauns, ABMR XIII, 1986, pp.416-421, xerox included). Lister notes that as over a hundred stones needed to be standing at any one time, it is possible that though the printed edition bore the imprint of "Kinfauns Press," it may actually have been printed two miles away in Perth to obviate the transport of type and stones. Gray's presentation inscription to the Duke of Sussex in the following lot also suggests that it was printed at Perth. Morison's language in the dedication, though, implies that the press was set up at Kinfauns, in the manner of Walpole at Strawberry Hill. An inserted letter from John Morris, Assistant Keeper of the National Library of Scotland, to Bernard Breslauer, 1990, notes, "As you will gather from [Lister's article], nothing is known of your wholly lithographed 1827 catalogue." Lister notes that "Morison set up type from a manuscript catalogue, one copy of which he wrote on the lithograph bordered paper used to print the Catalogue (ibid., p.419). There are no recorded copies of this lithographed edition listed in RLIN.
Christie's

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