Bitten by the Tarantula. A Story of the South of France Gowin Ten full-page tipped-in colour plates

Ten full-page tipped-in colour plates behind captioned tissue-guards and 19 smaller mounted colour plates

which chronicled the history of the British Empire from the earliest days of the East India Company to the disruptive post-colonial years of the 1960s"

A glorious example of the bookbinders craft with extravagant gilt tooling of the manner

Issue 13 (June 1966)

The "conversation piece" is an intimate group portrait usually of small dimensions which became fashionable in the Low Countries before flourishing in 18th century England

Bitten by the Tarantula. A Story of the South of France Gowin Ten full-page tipped-in colour platesLondon: Allan Wingate, 1945. First Edition, first printing, in the unclipped dust jacket (showing first issue price of 7s. 6d. to the front flap) designed by English Surrealist artist John Banting. Original red cloth. 108 pages. Spine ends of jacket rubbed; small chip at top right corner tip of front of jacket; without inscriptions or foxing offsetting. A near fine copy of MacLaren Ross's third book of prose. which takes places in 1930 in the south of