[Lorenz Schwartz Collection] The Compleat Angler

The Compleat Angler

by Izaak Walton. (Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Company [printed by The Riverside Press], 1909). Copy No. 261 of 440. 302 pp., illus. (woodcuts of fish). Bound by Lorenz Schwartz at The Zahn Bindery in full green levant morocco with pronounced grain. Both covers are ornately gilt-tooled within outer gilt frames each of which merges at the outside edge of the horizontal center leading into the major part of the design itself. The major concentration of the water, fish and lily pad design follows the outside hinge along the spine. Twin pairs of fish are enveloped within multiple gilt tooled wavy lines of water and interspersed lily pads which also culminate in a much small double pair of fish. The design and its execution are exceptional and illustrative of an art binder par excellence. Spine is in six compartments, each gilt framed with title and author in second and third compartments and date at the foot; prominent raised bands have large dot tooling atop, and all other panels are richly tooled with sinuous stem, lily pad and gilt-fish design reflecting the work on the covers. Inner doublures gilt framed with marbled paper center elaborately designed with a pair of fish at each corner, lily pad stems and leaves, and an insect pointing toward the far corner of each. The doublures are signed THE ZAHN BINDERY on the inside lower front cover and the LS monogram on the inside of the back cover.