Sentiments and similes of Williiam Shakespeare. Papier mache binding with terra cotta cameo of Shakespeare inserted into front and rear covers.
Publisher Information: London: Longmans & Green, 1851.
[Humphreys, Henry Noel (1810-79).] Shakespeare, William (1564-1616). Sentiments and similes of William Shakespeare. Edited by Henry Noel Humphreys (1810-79). [6], 100pp. Elaborate chromolithographed border by Humphreys on the first page, remaining text pages printed in black and gold with 2-color initials. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts, 1851. 194 x 147 mm. Pierced high-relief papier-mâché covers over gold foil featuring a cameo bust of Shakespeare on the front cover and the initials “WS” on the back, gilt dentelles, all edges gilt. Skillfully recased and rebacked; boxed. Minor soiling and fore-edge wear on first few leaves, but very good. 19th-century gift inscription on the title. Bookplate.
First Edition. “According to his preface, Shakespeare was the first author Henry Noel Humphreys thought of honoring with a modern printed illuminated book . . . Humphreys’s enshrinement of Shakespeare’s words is completed by the black papier-mâché binding with a terracotta cameo portrait of Shakespeare on the front cover and Shakespeare’s initials in a similar oval on the back cover. In the first edition the pieced strapwork is placed over a striated gold foil, while the second edition [1857] has a red background and an indented bevel at the outer edge. This cover, the illuminated first page, and Humphreys’s remarks about selecting ornament that Shakespeare might have requested himself reflects the emergence of an understanding that there was a difference between the style of the Middle Ages and that of the 16th and 17th centuries” (Beckwith, p. 43). A. Beckwith, Victorian Bibliomania: The Illuminated Book in 19th-Century Britain, no. 30.
Book Id: 46518Price: $1,500.00