Full Morocco
Full Morocco. Very Good. Square-ish 8vo. 19 by 17.5 cm. 10 leaves of content, all of which is on the rectos, including title, dedication page, seven pages of verse and final page of ornamental initials. Written in a bright metallic ink, black or red, and delicated ornamented with watercolors in a Gothic manner. Additionally, in the tradition of Medieval illuminated manuscripts, the first letter on each page is dressed up with color ornamentation, with two initial letters decorated pictorially, with portraits of the Virgin or saintly woman and of a monk, and most of the other initial letters with a whimsical geometric design of some sort These initial letters are rendered in a Florentine style. On one page, also, the first letters of each line is enhanced with surrounding watercoloring, although of a more modest dimension and design than the page initial letters. In our view, this is most definitely not a flamboyant, ostentatious illuminated manuscript; its beauty is of a quieter type, in keeping with the more modest size of the book itself. We find the decoration has a sublime quality, achieved through its tasteful restraint, with not a false note struck nor a single discernible error in its execution. We do not know the identity of the artist, who was almost certainly an amateur, as were the majority of Victorian era illuminists. We would infer that he was a man, based on the dedication, and that strikes as notable, as we believe the majority of amateurs doing this kind of work at the time were women. Condition: rubbing along the joints. Some other abrasions on the morocco, plus a faint stain from a resting glass on the front cover. A few light fox marks on the leaves within.
(Inventory #: 006330)