RIVIÈRE & SON, binders

Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900, The

Oxford: Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1912. Item #05211

A Spectacular 'Pointille' Binding from Rivière & Son During their Best Period

RIVIÈRE & SON, binders. The Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900. Chosen & Edited by Arthur Quiller Couch. Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1912.

Small octavo (6 9/16 x 4 3/16 inches; 167 x 106 mm.). [x], [1]-1084 pp. Printed on thin India paper.

Bound by Rivière & Son ca. 1912 in full midnight blue morocco, covers elaborately stamped in gilt pointille in a wonderful floral design. Spine with five raised bands elaborately tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments, double gilt ruled board edges. Red morocco doublures with an elaborate gilt design, cream watered silk end leaves, all edges gilt.
Joints very slightly cracked - almost invisible.

A spectacular binding from the house of Rivière & Son during the best years. The elaborate pointille design is almost breathtaking and the inner red morocco doublures equally pleasing.

The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250–1900 is an anthology of English poetry, edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch, that had a very substantial influence on popular taste and perception of poetry for at least a generation. It was originally published by Oxford University Press in 1900; in its india-paper form it was carried widely around the British Empire and in war as a 'knapsack book'. It sold close to 500,000 copies in its first edition.

Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (1863-1944) was a Cornish writer who published using the pseudonym Q. Although a prolific novelist, he is remembered mainly for the monumental publication The Oxford Book Of English Verse 1250–1900 and for his literary criticism. He influenced many who never met him, including American writer Helene Hanff, author of 84, Charing Cross Road and its sequel, Q's Legacy. His Oxford Book of English Verse was a favorite of John Mortimer's fictional character Horace Rumpole.

Price: $2,950.00