Greenwich Village: Types, Tenements & Temples

New York: Self-Published, 1930. Limited to 26 copies. Hardbound. Internally VG, covers are weakly attached and spine cloth getting weaker due to weight of covers with embedded zinc etching plates (one in each). Paper-covered thick cardboard covers with a thin and deteriorating cloth spine. Front cover upper right has an etching which represents the title of the book. No printing along spine. Four preliminary sheets, each an etching, followed by 22 signed etchings, and finishing up with an unsigned etching as the endsheet. The Limitation page (etched) has written in ink that this is copy 25 of a total of 26. A laid-in typed sheet (dated Lime Rock, Ct. in 1937) states that the original intent was to print 50 copies of this, the third state of the book. However, it goes on to say the zinc plates began to deteriorate and the edition was halted at 26. Each inside cover has a plate embedded into it. The front cover has an architectural scene, and the rear cover has a dancing scene. All 22 of the artist image etchings is signed. Weber, p. 31: "An interesting pictorial presentation of 'the Montmartre of America,' an area in Manhattan long frequented by authors, artists, and students." The limitation leaf describes Greenwich Village thus: "A hodge-podge of tumble-down tenements, rickety architectural relics, with a great deal of modernity just minced together. Mushroom tea taverns & dancing dens have found lodgement in the attics & cellars." One of the most charming and spirited of Wall's productions.