THE SHIP'S CAT.**

UK,slim Qrto HB,no dw/dj as issued,illustrated 1st edn. FINE.No owner inscrptn.Bright,crisp,clean,glossy laminated, sharp-cornered,glazed boards with colour pictorial artwork by Alan Aldridge,illustrated front board with capitalised title,capitalised illustrator+author names; a white spine/ backstrip with capitalised,yellow-lettered title,capitalised, blue-lettered illustrator+author surnames,a thumbnail colour illustrattion detail from endpaper illustration at head of same and publisher's black illustrated colophon to foot of same,rear board plain navy blue with no illustration - front board with minimal,superficial scoring/indents. Negligible shelf-wear and creases to edges and corners - no nicks,tears or splits present and immaculate dark blue background endpapers with a thumbnail repeated pale blue cat illustration.Top+fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean, solid and sound,no cracked hinges and virtually pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corner tips - appears unread,apart from my own collation.UK,slim Qrto HB,no dw/dj - as issued, illustrated 1st edn,32pp [unpaginated and excluding endpapers] with text in verse,13 full-page,full-colour illustrations by Alan Aldridge and Harry Willock.
Visually the exterior appearance is exceptional and particularly internally,is also in an exceptional condition/ state of preservation and presentation,for a book of its 45+ year-old age and nature, i.e. a child's book.It really is an exceptional copy for its cleanliness,brightness and lack of detracting faults.
A twenty-six verse tale written by Adam Richards and illustrated in collaboration by Alan Aldridge and Harry Willock,of the ship's cat adventures and brave deeds on the Spanish Maine,together with 'The Most Lamentable Loss of the Alcestis & Triumphant Firing of the Port of Chagres'. Alan Aldridge,born in Aylesbury,Buckinghamshire,and active from c.1967.Attended Romford Technical College but left at 15 and supported himself with an assortment of jobs including insurance clerk,repertory actor,dock hand and barrow boy.In 1963,he took a short evening course in commercial graphics.Soon he had achieved spectacular success with designs for posters,book covers,record sleeves,car furniture and body painting,as well as magazine and book illustration.In 1966,he was appointed art director of Penguin Books,but left in 1968 to set up his own studio,Ink,which received commissions from many of the leading pop groups and glossy magazines of the day,including the Beatle's ill-fated Apple Corps.As Aldridge's career embodied many of the aspirations of the 'swinging sixties',so his drawings epitomised the graphic idiom of the decade.His use of brilliant 'psychedelic' colours in combination with ebulliently decorative draughtsmanship gave his work the vigorous popular appeal of fairground art; but he used this apparently unsophisticated language to convey ideas of almost surrealistic complexity,abounding in visual ambiguities, allusions and jokes. Stylistically his most influential innovation was his use of the airbrush for fine colour gradation and shading over much of the picture surface, giving the illusion of undulating movement within the crisp contours.As his draughtsmanship developed,he increasingly incorporated graphic references to cultural traditions as diverse as oriental painting and pre-Columbian art,while his imagery continued to invite closer and more intense scrutiny.After disbanding Ink,Aldridge continued to work freelance,finding a regular publisher in Jonathan Cape.In 1974,he won the Children's Book of the Year Award with 'Butterfly Ball' and followed it up with the sequels 'The Peacock's Party' and 'The Lion's Cavalcade'; latterly he had designed animated films.He has also illustrated periodicals as diverse as Harper's, Nova, The Queen, The Sunday Times, Vogue and Woman's Mirror.Died 17th February,2017.
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