A Little Tour in France by Henry James (1900) retailer - Illustrated by Joseph Pennell

Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1900. First edition thus. 341 pp. Hardcover. Cover designed by Thomas Watson Ball.

A collection of travel essays inspired by the author's travels through the French countryside - specifically, Tours, Toulouse, Bourges, Nantes, and Carcassonne. The text retailer is illustrated by American artist and author Joseph Pennell, who wrote and illustrated many of his own pictorial travel books along with his wife Elizabeth Robbins Pennell.

A striking publisher's binding designed by Thomas Watson Ball; in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, American publishers hired designers and artists to create book bindings that both represented the theme of the contents and attracted potential buyers.

Publisher's decorative cloth. Very good, appears to be reinforced at p. 1, cloth lightly rubbed, bookplate on the front pastedown, contemporary ownership inscription on the front free endpaper, rear hinge starting inside the cover, spine ends a bit worn.