DENSLOW WILLIAM WALLACE Books to Burn

Sale 2387 - Lot 67

Price Realized: $ 422

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900

DENSLOW, WILLIAM WALLACE. Books to Burn!! Illustrated poster in green, black, red, and white. 305x407 mm; 12x16 inches, wide margins, small 3-mm repaired tear to upper left corner, few very minor clean tears to margins and a barely visible soft crease to lower margin; overall bright and fine. Np, August 1898

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Denslow was the first artist invited by Elbert Hubbard to join his Roycroft Press, the printing arm of his utopian arts commuity in upstate New York. The Roycroft movement was based on the philosophy and tenets of the Arts and Crafts movement and the work of William Morris and the group's artisans (dubbed the Roycrofters) created various handcrafted objects from books to leather and metal objects and furniture. Word about the community was spread through a magazine they published, The Philistine, A Periodical of Protest, for which Denslow provided cartoons and satirical drawings but which essentially developed into the soapbox for Hubbard's views on politcs, capitalism, and trancendental spiritualism. Denslow's image reflects Hubbard's vision of himself as an iconoclast, his radical ideas needing to be gleefully burned by outraged monks. One of Denslow's trademarks was to add a seahorse to his signature as shown in the upper left corner. Hubbard was so taken with the little figure that he adapted it to many of the Roycroft logos. Virginia, page 28; not in Kiehl.