HUNTER, Dard (1883-1966)

Papermaking in Southern Siam

      - Chillicothe, OH: Mountain House Press, 1936. Quarto. (11 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches). Title in red and black, half title. Colourd woodblock frontispiece, 17 photogrvure plates, 1 mounted Khoi tree bark sample, 1 mounted specimen of Siamese mould cloth, 3 double-page paper samples (two natural-toned, one "sacred black temple paper"), 4pp. publisher's prospectus loosely inserted. Original black morocco-backed decorated paper-covered boards by Peter Franck of Gaylordsville, Ct., the black hand-made paper covering the boards printed in gold and red from old Siamese woodblocks. One of 115 copies numbered and signed by Hunter, this being copy 41 -- the rarest of the Dard Hunter monographs on primitive papermaking. "This book is an account of a sojourn with Tym, Piung, Pyn, and Luolin Niltongkum at their paper mill in Bangsom. The old Niltongkum family has been making paper by hand along the small canals of Southern Siam for more than two hundred years, and their unique establishment is probably the most interesting primitive paper manufactory in Asia. The compiler of this book was the first Occidental traveller to visit this little-known remote mill . The book not only describes in detail the making of the various kinds of Siamese paper from the bark of the khoi tree (Steblus asper), but also an account is given of the journey from Singapore to Bangkok through the rubber plantations and jungles of the Malay Peninsula, a distance of over a thousand miles . Only 115 copies of this volume have been made and of this number only 99 offered for sale. This is the smallest edition ever made of a Dard Hunter book" (Prospectus). Schlosser 37. [Attributes: Signed Copy; Hard Cover]