Collected Verse of Rudyard Kipling

Bound by Glenn Malkin

Collected Verse of Rudyard Kipling
Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1912
De Luxe Edition. Number 94 of a limited edition of 100
Signed by Rudyard Kipling
478 Pages
26cm x 21cm x 5.5cm

Sewn onto five linen tapes incorporating leather hinges. Bound in Hewit's natural goat, dyed and decorated with a craquele background and airbrushed with acrylic ink. Back-pared onlay of tan goat and titled in gold. The book edges are decorated with acrylic ink and sprinkled gold leaf. The endbands are hand sewn with silk thread. Inside the boards are edge-to-edge leather doublures. Presented in a bespoke suede-lined wooden box featuring a decorative leather panel to the lid.

The design of the binding represents the way Kipling worked across and wrote about all elements and classes of society, both in India and elsewhere.

Although undeniably a product of the English ruling classes, neither the complexities of the Indian caste system nor the colonial or military hierarchy posed any barriers to him on either a social or professional level, and this is represented in his verse. Kipling was unable to join the military due to poor eyesight, but as a journalist he had access to all levels of the military presence in India, resulting in, amongst others, his Barrack-Room Ballads first published as a collection of verse in 1892.

This volume of selected verse includes some of his most famous early works including 'Gunga Din', acknowledging the importance of the local Indian man, supplying water to the soldiers in the midst of an awful and bloody battle. This volume is a wonderful collection of such verse. Several editions were published in 1912 - this 'de-luxe' edition is the rarest. It is printed on heavy Japanese Vellum (a paper specially produced to have the look and feel of parchment) and has been signed by Rudyard Kipling himself. Only 100 copies of this edition were produced.

This publication incorporates a logo commonly found on many of Kipling's early publications - that of an elephant and a swastika. The inclusion of a version of the swastika in this book of course pre-dates the Nazi use of the symbol by about 20 years and in this earlier context it is the Indian sun symbol representing good fortune, as it has for many generations.

For further examples of Glenn's work, see his website at Glenn Malkin Design Bindings or e-mail glenn@glennmalkin.com