Stories of the English Artists From Vandyck to Turner, 1600-1851

London, New York: Chatto & Windus, 1908. First Edition (presumed; no prior editions or printings cited). Octavo with white boards and decorative gilt stamping; full vellum binding; gilt top edge; xiii, 288 pages; deckle edges; color frontispiece, plates (some color, including portraits); 21 cm Very good; clean and tight; leaves are age-toned; boards a wee bit bumped at corners; bookplate on front flyleaf; light pencil checkmarks on several pages. Hardcover.

"[This volume] is intended for the general reader, ignorant possibly of what is good or bad in art, but none the less interested to learn what manner of men they were who funded the art of painting in England or who worthily sustained the traditions of their greater predecessors. Accordingly in these slight biographical records the dominant theme is the man, not the painter; his work and its comparative value is merely incidental. Throughout, the chief interest lies in the trifling personal details, anecdotes, scraps of gossip, notes of conversations, and the like, which enable us to form some idea of the characters, habits and thoughts of the painters to whom they relate." --Preface. 24 different (male) artists.