Item #03823 Poems of Shelley. John RAMAGE, binder, Percy Bysshe SHELLEY.
Poems of Shelley
Poems of Shelley
Poems of Shelley
Poems of Shelley

Poems of Shelley

London: Macmillan and Co.,, 1926. Item #03823

"History is a Cyclic Poem Written by Time Upon the Memories of Man"
A Superb Example of Ramage's Remarkably Delicate, Careful, and Elaborate Gilt Work

SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe. [RAMAGE, binder]. Poems of Shelley. Selected and Arranged by Stopford A. Brooke. London: Macmillan and Co., 1926. 
 
Golden Treasury Series. Sixteenmo (5 13/16 x 3 7/8 inches; 148 x 97 mm.). lxvi, [2], 340 pp. Title-page with vignette of Field Place - Shelley's birth place. 
 
Beautifully bound ca. 1926 by Ramage of London (stamp-signed in gilt on lower turn-in). Full green crushed levant morocco, covers paneled in gilt surrounding a very intricate design in gilt, spine with five raised bands, decoratively stamped and lettered in gilt in compartments, gilt board-edges, wide decorative gilt turn-ins, cream watered silk liners and end-leaves, all edges gilt. Neat early ink presentation (dated 1927) on front blank. A superb example of a later Ramage binding.
 
Born in London in 1836, John Ramage served an apprenticeship with John Wright, then went to Paris, where he was able to work with the distinguished Marcellin Lortic (1822-1892), who opened his shop on the Rue St. Honoré in 1840. In 1860 Ramage purchased the binding business of Alexander Banks, Jr., in Edinburgh, then returned three years later to London, where he was in business at various locations into the 20th century. Though the range of their designs is broad, Ramage bindings are celebrated for their remarkably delicate, careful, and elaborate gilt work.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets, and is regarded by some as among the finest lyric, as well as epic, poets in the English language. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not see fame during his lifetime, but recognition for his poetry grew steadily following his death. Shelley was a key member of a close circle of visionary poets and writers that included Lord Byron; Leigh Hunt; Thomas Love Peacock; and his own second wife, Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.

Shelley is perhaps best known for such classic poems as Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, Music, When Soft Voices Die, The Cloud and The Masque of Anarchy. His other major works include a groundbreaking verse drama The Cenci (1819) and long, visionary poems such as Queen Mab (later reworked as The Daemon of the World), Alastor, The Revolt of Islam, Adonaïs, Prometheus Unbound (1820) - widely considered to be his masterpiece - Hellas: A Lyrical Drama (1821), and his final, unfinished work, The Triumph of Life (1822).

Price: $1,950.00

See all items in Fine Bindings, Poetry