“FOR DEAR NOEL”: INSCRIBED BY CLEMENCE DANE TO NOEL COWARD

DANE, Clemence [ASHTON, Winifred]. The Lion and the Unicorn. London: William Heinemann, 1943. Octavo, original half cloth and patterned paper-covered boards, uncut. $900.

Signed limited first edition, presentation copy, number 9 of 1000 copies signed by the author, additionally inscribed: “for dear Noel from Winifred (one day there shall be a King Charles!).”

Writer and artist Clemence Dane, pseudonym of Winifred Ashton, 1885-1965, was a close friend of playwright Noel Coward from the 1920s until her death. In his autobiography, which he dedicated to Dane, Coward wrote: “Winifred is large in every, and her capacity for friendship is without limits; apart from her recognized fame as a writer she is a brilliant sculptress and painter, and her vitality is inexhaustible” (Future Indefinite). With frontispiece portrait of Queen Elizabeth.

Boards with lightest wear to extremities. An exceptional association copy in near-fine condition.