ELIA. ESSAYS WHICH HAVE APPEARED UNDER THAT SIGNATURE IN THE LONDON MAGAZINE

London: Taylor and Hessey, 1823. FIRST EDITION, First State (imprint with single address for publisher). 200 x 125 mm. (8 x 5"). 2 p.l., 341, [1] pp., [3] leaves (ads).
VERY PRETTY DARK GREEN CRUSHED MOROCCO, ELABORATELY GILT, BY RIVIERE & SON (stamp-signed on front turn-in), covers with double frames formed of floral sprigs, drawer handles, and other small tools, raised bands, spine panels densely gilt with stippling, floral tools radiating from small central flower, gilt lettering, turn-ins with floral garlands at corners, olive green watered silk endleaves, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed. Ashley III, 50; Tinker 1457. Spine darker green than the covers (though not at all noticeable in the four compartments that are almost solidly gilt), front joint a little rubbed and with two-inch thin crack at top, final leaf of ads with repaired curving two-inch tear into text, isolated small stains or faint foxing, but still very attractive--clean and fresh internally, in a very lustrous binding sparkling with gilt.

This is a handsomely bound copy of Lamb's largely autobiographical essays that embrace the broad subject of mankind at large, as seen through the author's own experience and impressions. As Oxford Companion says, Lamb's essays "present, with exquisite humor and pathos, and in a brilliant and inimitable style, characters that the author has known . . . , the productions of a playful or melancholy fancy . . . , and general comments and criticism." The name "Elia," as Lamb says, was "clapt down" on these essays in honor of a fellow clerk at South Sea House, a building of commercial offices and the subject of the first essay. A second collection, "The Last Essays of Elia," appeared in 1833. Charles Lamb (1775-1834) worked in the office of the East India Company and wrote poetry, essays, and plays. With his sister Mary, he was the author of "Tales of Shakespeare," a flowing and lucid prose rendition of 20 of the bard's dramas that helped rekindle 19th century interest in the plays. The strikingly attractive binding, done in an elaborately gilt style reminiscent of the Roger Payne era, is the work of Riviere, one of the foremost names among English binderies, partly because the firm did consistently fine work and partly because it was so long in business. Robert Riviere began as a bookseller and binder in Bath in 1829, then set up shop as a binder in London in 1840; in 1881, he took his grandson Percival Calkin into partnership, at which time the firm became known as Riviere & Son, and the bindery continued to do business under the Riviere name until 1939, when it was acquired by Bayntun..