THE BOOK OF GEMS. THE POETS AND ARTISTS OF GREAT BRITAIN

1836, 1838 · London

by (FORE-EDGE PAINTINGS). (BINDINGS - FAZAKERLEY)

London: Saunders and Otley, 1836, 1838. FIRST EDITIONS. 220 x 138 mm. (8 5/8 x 5 1/2"). Three volumes. Edited by Samuel Carter Hall.
SPECTACULAR MAROON CRUSHED MOROCCO BY FAZAKERLEY OF LIVERPOOL (stamp-signed on front turn-ins), covers with inlaid green morocco frame enclosing a panel elaborately gilt and inlaid in the Arts & Crafts style, with two topiaries of inlaid citron morocco roses, gilt lettering at head of front covers, spine compartments similarly inlaid with rose buds, gilt titling, turn-ins framed with inlaid green morocco strip and multiple gilt rules, inlaid rosebud and gilt leaves at corners, ivory watered silk doublures and endleaves, (truncated) marbled flyleaves, all edges gilt and delicately gauffered, EACH FORE EDGE WITH THREE LOVELY VIGNETTE PAINTINGS of bucolic villages, seacoast towns, and storm-blown ships. With 149 engraved vignettes. Each volume with four pages of facsimile signatures of poets following the text. First volume with laid-in handwritten note from Lily Safra, presenting the set "To Susan and John [Gutfreund], a small "contribution" to the bookcases, with all my heart—New York January 25, 1984." 1836 volumes with faint browning to edges and isolated small spots of foxing, but A SPLENDID SET, the text clean, fresh, and mostly bright, with generous margins and excellent impressions of the engravings, IN A SPARKLING BINDING.

bound by Fazakerley of Liverpool, with their signature fore-edge vignette paintings. The contents are a testament to British literature and artistry, with the poetic pillars of Chaucer, Spenser, Donne, Shakespeare, Dryden, Burns, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Coleridge, as well as other writers comprising the anthology. Along with these are brief biographical sketches, facsimile autographs, and portraits rendered after paintings and designs by notable British artists like Turner, Bonington, Landseer, and Maclise. Known to have apprenticed with John Sutton in Liverpool in 1813, Thomas Fazakerley established his own business in 1835 and worked until 1877, after which time his son John continued the firm. Their workshop did not produce bindings in great numbers, but its craftsmen established a durable reputation for fine quality work. Fazakerley is especially well known for delicate paintings on glittering gold fore edges, visible, not when the volume is fanned open, but rather when it is closed--and that is a feature notably on display here. Like the poetry, the scenes depicted are resoundingly British, from village churches and pastoral scenes to the tall ships with which Britannia ruled the waves. The provenance is distinguished. Lily Safra (b. 1934) and her husband Edmond J. (1932-99) collected all manner of beautiful objects, and their library was rich in fine bindings in superb condition. Mrs. Safra generously presented this set to friends assembling their own library in 1984.. (Inventory #: ST19927)

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