WILLIAM H. BRADLEY (1868-1962) THE CHAP BOOK. 1895. 20 3/4x14 inches, 52 1/4x35 1/2 cm. Condition B+: minor repaired tears, losses, restored losses, creases and staining in margins; horizontal fold. Framed. On December 30, 1894 an article appeared in the Chicago Sunday Tribune stating that Bradley, as an artist, "was the best in America. No one else has such a wealth of invention, so clear and flowing a line; no one else uses black so boldly and so discriminatingly; above all, no one else makes an equally conscientious effort to get the best decorative effect out of an inch square initial or poster covering half the street . . . Bradley discovered for himself how to place strange but effective blacks, how to weave them with delicate lines into a harmonious drawing, how to enrich them with lavish and skillful ornament" (Koch p. 45). This was Bradley's sixth poster for The Chap Book. Kiehl 22, DFP-I 153, Koch p. 69, Reims 1137, Margolin p. 99, Keay p. 16.
