Description
FIRST EDITION THUS, oblong 8vo, pp. [12]. Printed in full colour throughout. Stitched with red, white, and blue string, in the original wax-paper printed envelope. Wrappers a bit spotted, envelope torn, creased and chipped.
The Absent Minded Beggar.
- London: The Printing Arts Company 1899
£120
Notes
Kipling released the copyright on this poem so that it could be printed widely for charitable purposes after its first appearance in the Daily Mail. This is one such production, 'produced for the Benefit of the Relief Fund, organised by "The Daily Mail"'. It was printed by the Orloff Press using their new process, in which 'All the Colours are printed at once (by a Single Impression), and at the rate of about One Thousand Copies per hour' and for each copy sold thruppence was donated. A scarce survival, especially the envelope, and an early example in the West of the first four-colour wet-ink printing process, invented in 1892 by Ivan Ivanovich Orloff, Chief Engineer of the Russian Government Printing Works in St. Petersburg to help print currency and other securities. International rights were acquired by William Ward, partner in the chromolithography specialists Marcus Ward, and he marketed it heavily in an attempt to move beyond the family firm. However, the process was not well-suited to rich colours and Ward's project failed commercially, though the Orloff process remained in its original use printing currency around the world into the 21st century.
