Mar 09, 2023 - Sale 2629

Sale 2629 - Lot 102

Price Realized: $ 281
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600

WILLIAM H. BRADLEY (1868-1962)

THE CHAP - BOOK. 1894.


19 3/4x14 inches, 50 1/4x35 1/2 cm.
Condition B: minor repaired tears at edges; minor creases in image; faded and toned.

Bradley's first poster ever, and first of many Chap Book posters (Koch p. 36), from August 1894. Although justifiable comparisons to Beardsley have been made, Charles Hiatt (author of Picture Posters, 1895, and prominent critic and early authority on posters) stated it best: "He has seen and assimilated, in no small degree, the manner of Mr. Aubrey Beardsley. He is however, a great deal more than a mere imitator; what he has borrowed, he has borrowed with conspicuous intelligence, and nobody could for a moment accuse him of anything approaching petty larceny" (Picture Posters p. 298). Kiehl 13, DFP-I 152, Koch p. 22, Reims 1139, Virginia p. 23, Margolin p. 26 and 97, Keay p. 41, Met 1984.1202.8.