[Rarebooks] Hunter. Primitive Papermaking.

[Edward Ripley-Duggan]

(AUSTRALASIA). HUNTER, Dard. Primitive Papermaking: An Account of a 
Mexican Sojourn and of a Voyage to the Pacific Islands in Search of 
information, Implements, and Specimens Relating to the Making & 
Decorating of Bark-Paper. Chillicothe, Ohio, Mountain House Press, 
1927. First edition. One of 200 copies signed and numbered by Dard 
Hunter. Enclosed is a TLS from Hunter, offering the book to "Mr. 
Smith" of the District of Columbia Paper Co., dated 1927, as well as 
the scarce prospectus. Folio. 48 pp. with thirty-five line 
illustrations and ten original photographs plus twenty-seven pages of 
mounted specimens (31 of bark paper and 2 of mulberry bark; all with 
printed explanatory text). Photogravure frontispiece of Hunter's 
Mountain House. Printed by the author in brown and black on paper 
handmade by Dard Hunter and using the type designed by him. Overall, 
a fresh and clean copy, but with some separation to the buckram at 
the head and tail of the portfolio and Smith's name faintly visible 
(in ink) on the title label. All ties present.

An important title on Australasian papermaking, this was the earliest 
of Hunter's books on non-European papermaking. In the prospectus, 
Hunter states: "There are two actual specimens of paper-mulberry bark 
from Tongatabu and Java and more than twenty actual examples of 
primitive bark papers which have been gathered by Dard Hunter in 
various parts of the world. These include bark papers made by the 
Otomi Indians of Mexico for religious ceremonies; rare deloewang 
specimens from Java; ancient watermarked specimens from Hawaii; taloa 
and kuvui specimens from Taviumi, Fiji Islands; plain and 
kupesi-marked pieces from Tongatabu and Vavau of the Tonga Islands; 
beautifully-decorated specimens from Savaii of the Samoan Islands; 
examples from the Uvea group, and the plain hoopai-marked varieties 
from the Marquesas and Austral Islands. These actual specimens, some 
of which are hundreds of years old, are tipped in each volume, 
forming a veritable museum..." An extraordinary and multi-faceted 
ethnographic document. Ransom, Private Presses, p. 323, no. 5.

$3500