“THIS IS A WORLD I LOVE AND I THINK YOU WILL ALSO”

(WYETH, Andrew) (BOSCH, Hieronymus) TOLNAY, Charles de. Hieronymus Bosch. New York: Reynal and Company, in association with William Morrow, (1966). Folio ( by inches), original white cloth, original dust jacket. $3200.

First American edition of this lavishly illustrated tribute to the startlingly unconventional 15th-century Dutch artist. This copy presented by American artist Andrew Wyeth to his aunt and cousin, inscribed by him on the front free endpaper: “Dearest Miss Herr and her lovely daughter Mary—This is a world I love and I think you will also—All my love, Andy.”

Andrew Wyeth's aunt Elizabeth Bockius Sargent and her daughter Mary lived in Lancaster County, and Wyeth would visit them with some regularity. From correspondence it would appear that Andrew Wyeth at times referred to his Aunt Elizabeth as "Miss Herr," jokingly referring to himself as "Mr. Herr" or "H. Herr." Wyeth's family was related to the descendants of Hans Herr of the Hans Herr House, a famous 1719 Lancaster County farmhouse, now part of a museum. Wyeth painted the Herr House, and the sale of reproductions of this painting helped finance renovations to the building, which is now part of a museum complex devoted to the Mennonite heritage of Lancaster County. Preceded by the German first edition of 1965.

Mild wear to spine head only of price-clipped dust jacket. Near-fine, with a nice artistic association.