The Gardens of Kijkuit
The gardens of Kijkuit
Elizabeth Woodburn, a well known 20th century American botanical rare book collector, considered The Gardens of Kijkuit a wonderful example of a pictorial book on one estate and its grounds. The book documents John D. Rockerfeller’s estate, cicra 1919, in upstate New York called Kijkuit, Dutch for “to watch or be vigilant.” The book is filled with photographs by Arnold Genthe, famous for documenting the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and portraits of notable people. Kijkuit (or Kykuit), home to four generations of the Rockerfeller family, is now a historic site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This book takes you back to a time when it was the home of one the richest men in the world.
This volume has an early 20th century Japanese style binding with a single sheet textblock and side sewing. The binding is failing at the sewing stations with areas of loss at the head and tail of the volume. The decorative endpapers are torn at the gutter. Conservators will remove the covers and repair the case and endpapers. An acid free enclosure will be created to further protect this delicate item.
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