BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED FIRST EDITION OF FLOWERS OF PARADISE, INSCRIBED BY REGINALD FRANCIS HALLWARD TO HIS SON

HALLWARD, Reginald Francis. Flowers of Paradise. London and New York: Macmillan, [1889]. Slim square quarto, original pictorial black paper boards, patterned endpapers. $1250.

First edition of this lovely songbook, richly illustrated in art nouveau style with eight color illustrations, one double-page, and numerous vignettes and page decorations, in lovely publisher’s pictorial boards, inscribed by Hallward to his son: “Reginald Michael Blokam Hallward, from father and mother. Feb 25th 1897.”

A beautifully illustrated songbook containing hymns and seasonal melodies, with complete lyrics and a piano-vocal score for each song. “Hallward ran The Woodlands Press at Shore near Grovesend from about 1895 to about 1913, printing various books of verse… illustrated by his own chalk drawings” (Houfe, 165). Hallward was also allegedly responsible for giving Oscar Wilde the idea for The Picture of Dorian Gray; Wilde named the portrait’s painter “Basil Hallward,” supposedly after him. Hallward’s son, to whom this copy is inscribed, went on to become a well-regarded architect and was the father of Oscar-winning actress Gloria Grahame.

Slight foxing to first few leaves of text, a few spots of soiling, light wear to extremities of binding. A lovely, near-fine copy.