Grand Beetles and Secret Mice, it’s a Charles van Sandwyk Collector’s Update
Jump to: Life is Grand | Yours Truly | Secret Mouse Project
As my long-time readers know, I’ve been a collector of the beautiful works of Charles van Sandwyk for many years, and I maintain a very detailed illustrated bibliography of his works for collectors along with a small gallery here on the site.
However, in deference to Charles’ new Instagram account, I’ve refrained from posting the most recent works for the past few months to be sure he had an opportunity to share details from his account first. So I’m thrilled to now share some more in depth images of his latest books – several of which are courtesy of our CvS collector friend John (who also has a wonderful Instagram account where he shares vintage toys, art and books) – and some sneak peeks of the upcoming van Sandwyk ‘secret project’ with the Folio Society.
Two delightful new handmade books
Life is Grand is a very limited edition publication of only 65 copies, produced with two cover variants featuring a stag beetle and a butterfly design. This special publication is a calligraphic manuscript with seven simple cycles to illustrate the life of a poem, filled with a sweet collection of moths, butterflies and beetles who share intriguing lifecycles.
Yours Truly is one of Charles’ handmade trade editions, which provides a short biography of the artist. It comes in four different cover variants, and includes a young self-portrait, a short biography, and a four-page fold-out spread with a tipped-in booklet story titled ‘The Child Within’. (Keep reading to the end for a bonus flip-through of the book.)
Some new ephemera
Here is a lovely card Charles made which contains a poem called ‘Fortress on the Hill’, which is based on his earlier book I Believe (yes, I also have a large catalogue of van Sandwyk ephemera on the site as well if you’re interested).
...And a 'secret project'
Charles has also been posting some hints about his upcoming ‘secret project’ with the Folio Society, which is hotly anticipated to be a 2021 Christmas release. Anyone care to guess what this might be? Personally, I think it will be a collection of ‘mouse tails’, featuring perennial Charles favourite (an often autobiographical) the Painter Mouse, along with other famous mice from other books, including Ratty from his glorious edition of Wind in the Willows and maybe even the dormouse from Alice in Wonderland? I’ll update here when it’s released, but in the meantime some teaser snippets below…
Bonus flip-through
This short flip-through of Yours Truly below is courtesy of Charles’ Instagram account.
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