SESAME AND LILIES

London: Smith, Elder & Co, 1865. FIRST EDITION. 170 x 117 mm. (6 3/4 x 4 3/4"). 2 p.l., 196 pp.

Very pretty teal blue crushed morocco, elaborately gilt, by Charles Elsden Gladstone (signed in gilt "C. E. G." on front turn-in), covers with intertwining gilt vine forming a lattice design, the compartments formed containing a Tudor rose or gilt lettering, raised bands, spine compartments tooled with a swirl of gilt vine, wide turn-ins with spray of gilt leaves at corners, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Printed in black and red. Rear free endpaper with cut signature of "F. T. Palgrave 1865" mounted below manuscript notes in pencil. Spine evenly sunned to gray-brown, faint freckled foxing to flyleaves, but an excellent copy, clean and fresh internally, and the binding with few signs of wear.

This is the first printing of Ruskin's famous lectures addressing what to read, the education and obligations of women in the monied classes, and the ultimate mystery of life, offered here in a binding by a talented amateur. Ruskin said that if one read the first two lectures in conjunction with his "Unto This Last" (1862), one would know "the chief truths" he had endeavored to display throughout his writings. Ruskin's views on aesthetics were no doubt of interest to Capt. Charles Elsden Gladstone, R.N. (1855-1919), a Royal Navy officer who bound several books in the late 19th and early 20th century. We do not know where he trained, but around the turn of the 20th century there were a number of opportunities available in England to study with established binders, either in one of the Arts & Crafts schools or in a workshop. Gladstone was a "finisher" who applied the gold tooling and decoration on books already bound in leather, and his work shows real skill and excellent taste. Former owner Francis Turner Palgrave (1824-97) was a literary critic and poet, best known for his poetical anthology "Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics."