Darley, F.O.C. "Compositions in Outline by Felix O.C. Darley from Judd’s Margaret"

Felix O.C. Darley.  Compositions in Outline by Felix O. C. Darley from Judd’s Margaret.  Engraved by Konrad Huber. 

New York: Redfield, 1856.  Lithographs by Sarony, New York.  Oblong folio.  Original boards with Darley images on front and back.  Complete and collates: 2 ll., 1 l., title, [1-6 pp.], 30 full page images each with title and text describing that picture, 2 ll.  Condition: spine lacking with frayed stitching exposed, pages browned and water stained.  This copy needs to be disbound and each page cleaned.  It can be cleaned and rebound successfully.  A remarkable work, priced low due to condition. 

This utopian tale is told with thirty full-page illustrations done with the usual Darley flair.  His depictions of American costumes, landscapes and interiors are exquisite and with a minimum of line.  Sylvester Judd’s temperance novel is here illustrated, according to John N. Hoover in  Felix O. C. Darley Artist and Illustrator of Nineteenth-Century America (Redwood Library & Athenaeum, 1993): item 32, in a manner that is “considered the artist’s masterpiece in outline.”