Les Tres Riches Heures de Mrs Mole (Double Signed)

First edition.  One of a signed edition limited to 156 Special copies, this being No. 122, signed by both Ronald and Monica Searle on the limitation page.  Bound in tan morocco with tan suede boards and tan morocco title label on upper panel.  Pictorial endpapers.  [viii], forty-seven numbered water colour illustrations, printed on one side of the page only, [x].  Presented in a two-tone tan paper-covered slipcase.  8vo. The volume is neat, clean, bright and tight throughout.  he slipcase has a little shelf wear. 

A volume of illustrations painted by Seale for his wife Monica, one for each time she underwent chemotherapy for breast cancer between 1967 and 1975.  Touching and intimate, and utterly delightful they reveal the Searle’s life together, portrayed through Mole characters.  Monica survived her breast cancer but these illustrations were not published until 2011.  Monica died within weeks of the publication, with her husband following her later the same year, making this one their last acts together.  A magnificent volume.