Edward Bishop - The Debt We Owe - Presentation Copy

BISHOP, Edward (1924-2003).

The Debt We Owe. The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund 1919-1979.

London: George Allen and Unwin, 1978.

PRESENTATION COPY TO ARTIST DAVID SHEPHERD, second, revised and enlarged edition. Octavo (23 x 15cm), pp.xix; [1]; 202; [2]. Illustrated with two suites of black and white photographs. Finely bound by Kemp Hall, Oxford in dark blue full morocco, raised bands and gilt titles to spine, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. With a presentation inscription to the first blank from the Chairman of the RAF Benevolent Fund dated October 1979: “Presented to | David Shepherd  | in gratitude for painting | “Winter of ’43 - | Somewhere in England””

Internally fine, some slight scuffs and marks to the binding. Fine. 

A wonderful association copy of an ostensibly common title. David Shepherd was notable as an artist who specialised in paintings of wildlife, trains, and aircraft. His painting of an Avro Lancaster Winter of ’43 - Somewhere in England was sold as a print in aid of the RAF Benevolent Fund.