leather books

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    Cambridge Complete Poetical Works

    Books, Leather Bindings, Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition, c. 1900

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    $600

    Complete Poetical Works, Cambridge Edition
    Five-Volume Leather-Bound Set
    Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston and New York: c. 1900
    The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts (publisher)
    8 inches high
    12.5 inches linear on shelf
    Brown calf leather bindings with gilt decoration
    $600, the set

    A set of five leather bound books, each featuring the works of a celebrated British dating from the 17th through 19th centuries: Alfred Tennyson, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Wordsworth, John Milton, Edmund Spenser. The full calf bindings have elaborate ornamental embossed gilt decoration on the spines. Each has a frontispiece with an engraved portrait of the poet. 

    Condition: Bindings generally very good and solid, with the usual overall light toning, wear, and handling, particularly at extremities. Contents fine overall with light toning.

    Additional information

    Book Type

    leatherbound
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    Ruskin Blue Leather Bound Book

    Books, Leather Bindings, John Ruskin, 8 Volumes, Antique,1871-84 (Sold)

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    John Ruskin (1819-1900)
    Fors Clavigera — Letters To The Workmen And Labourers Of Great Britain
    George Allen, Sunnyside, Orpington, Kent: 1871-84
    8 volumes complete
    Octavo, 8.75 x 5.75 inches
    Full dark blue leather by Townsend, floral gilt decorated

    Ruskin was a famous British author, artist and social reformer. The title page lists him as “John Ruskin, L.L.D., Honorary Student Of Christchurch, And Slade Professor Of Fine Art.” This set of works is sometimes called Ruskin’s one-man magazine, with letters dated from 1871 to 1884. Set comprised of 96 letters originally issued as separate publications but subsequently collected into these 8 volumes of 12 letters each. In this series of papers his social philosophy is fully discussed. The writings include autobiographical and biographical tracts, stories and translations, as well as studies in art and botany, etc. Ruskin scholar Dinah Birch calls Fors Clavigera Ruskin’s “most controversial and personal text… disturbing and endlessly fascinating.” With occasional full page plates and in-text illustrations by Ruskin, which Birch says are “essential for the understanding of his argument.” Volume 8 also contains illustrations by the famous British illustrator Kate Greenaway (1846-1901).

    Full dark blue leather, front and rear with blind tooled panels, gilt tooled flower corner pieces, beveled edges, spines with raised bands and gilt tooled flower decorations marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. These volumes are all uniformly bound by “Townsend.” Volumes 1, 4, and 7 have binders name stamped on the inside of front boards.

    Reference:

    “Fors Clavigera.” Columbia University Press. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/catalog/data/185331/1853311251.HTM

    Additional information

    Century

    19th Century