Andrew Wyeth by Richard Meryman - 1968

This is the familiar large Wyeth book from the late '60s, once as abundant as it was important, but now approaching endangered status due to years of debinding at the hands of print sellers.

It's an oblong elephant folio. Binding is straight and solid, quarterbound in cloth with beige boards and chocolate brown spine with silver lettering. Beige cloth looks clean from a couple of feet away, up close shows some signs of age and handling including edge foxing. Pages are complete, in all cases straight and white, crisp and square-cornered, and unmarked.

The DJ is a kind of paper that has often doomed heavy, very large-format books like this one to cosmetic wear from normal handling in the bookstore. The DJ here has clearly been around the block a couple of times since initial purchase. Short tears on the bottom edge have been closed from behind with archival tape to stabilize things, and also to decent cosmetic effect. The main jacket issue is an overall toning combined with stipples of foxing. It manages to look reasonably Wyethy, fortune being what it is.

Basically however, this is a very nice, clean, squared-away copy with a presentable but not remarkably fab DJ that promises to look pretty good under the archival Mylar sleeve the book deserves.