A deluxe copy of the book 'The Art of William S Phillips - The Glory of Flight' with a matching-numbered copy of the Limited Edition print Into the Throne Room of God. A very rare secondary market portfolio set in exceptional condition.

The print: Into the Throne Room of God
Thunderstorms can be unpredictable. They rise upward with one heaving bulge after another until they spread into a stratospheric anvil top. They block the way of an aircraft with deep purple curtains, or even worse, with green walls that crackle and glow with lightning. Sometimes an F-14 Tomcat like this one follows holes and corridors past the storm’s lurking dragons and into a strange, quiet cathedral of cloud. Here shafts of sunlight find gaps and flood through with rich golden colors as though they’d struck stained glass windows. The cumulus seems almost welcoming here, soft and bright. There’s a patch of blue sky above, so this is part of the world, even though it looks like dream country.

“This quiet awesome place surrounded by great power is God’s throne room,” says the artist, “where pilots and artists sometimes come to pay their respects.”

The print is presented in the original custom made sleeve with matching gold block lettering. A second print is supplied as part of the package - a small print taken from a William Phillip's drawing of P-39 Airacobras.

The book: The Glory of Flight
The book is a luxury bound limited edition version of William Phillip's first book release The Glory of Flight. The cloth cover carries titling blocked in gold. It is presented in a matching cloth bound library sleeve which itself has titles and the artist's signature blocked in gold. Inside it is signed and numbered by the artist.

Released in 1994 by American publishing company Greenwich Workshop, this is one of the most lavishly presented limited edition aviation art book and print sets ever produced. William Phillips has been regarded by many as the leading American aviation artist over the last 35 years. The Glory of Flight is a superb celebration of his work bringing together a large collection of both well known and not so often seen images. The book is structured around flying from the aircrew perspective, rather than historic periods or aircraft types. Phillips' style is big and bold with strong use of colour and tonal contrast and he is not afraid of trying compositions and lighting effects that have not been done before. The book layout presents this to good effect with many large double page spreads and even a couple of fold-outs. Aircraft types covered range from the Wright brothers to the F-14 Tomcat. Introduction is by pilot Stephen Coonts and the artist modestly only dedicates a couple of pages to himself.

Colour plates: 78 full colour pictures plus several pencil drawings.
Pages: 172

Condition: overall all items are in exceptional condition. This book was purchased from new from ourselves by the seller and has spent almost all of its life stored on a book shelf, only rarely being opened or handled. The cloth library sleeve looks like new. Inside the book is excellent with little sign of ever being opened and read. The prints are perfect having been stored since purchase in the presentation sleeve which is itself in 'as new' condition.