Verses by Christina G. Rossetti
London: Privately printed at G. Polidori's…, 1847. Item #05302
Christina Rossetti's First Book Privately Printed by Her Grandfather
and Inscribed by the Sixteen-Year-Old Poet to Her Beloved Aunt Eliza Harriet Polidori
ROSSETTI, Christina G. Verses by Christina G. Rossetti. Dedicated to her Mother. London: Privately Printed at G. Polidori's, No. 15 Park Village East, Regent's Park, 1847.
First edition of Christina Rossetti's exceptionally rare first book, privately printed by her maternal grandfather, Gaetano Polidori, and inscribed by the sixteen-year-old poet to her aunt Eliza Harriet Polidori, one of the most important figures in Christina's personal life.
Presentation inscription on the front blank: "E. H. Polidori / from Christina Rossetti / July 1847."
Small octavo (6 1/4 x 3 7/8 inches; 159 x 98 mm.). [iv], 66, [2, blank] pp.
Magnificently bound about 1900 by Zaehnsdorf in full green morocco as an exhibition binding. Covers richly decorated with an elaborate floral design in gilt with red morocco onlays; spine with five raised bands, elaborately gilt with matching floral onlays, lettered in gilt in compartments; gilt-ruled board edges, decorative gilt turn-ins, tan morocco doublures and endleaves, all edges gilt. The joints have been expertly and invisibly repaired. Original blue patterned publisher's cloth wrappers preserved at the rear.
With the engraved bookplate of the distinguished Rossetti bibliographer Charles Plumptre Johnson on the front pastedown and the armorial bookplate of Dr. Samuel L. Sieger on the first blank. Housed in a full dark green morocco clamshell case, spine gilt in compartments.
This copy contains the corrected setting of pages 55-56, with the date "1847" at the conclusion of the poem and all of the recognized textual corrections present, including: stanza 5 opening: "And now that thou art gone"; stanza 5: "And see the clouds"; stanza 6 opening: "Yes, oftentimes I sit beneath it now"; quotation marks added to stanza 8, lines 1-2;stanza 8 ending with a semicolon.
A magnificent association copy in an outstanding exhibition binding.
Verses marks Christina Rossetti's formal literary debut. Printed at the private press of her grandfather Gaetano Polidori when the poet was only sixteen years old, it gathers forty-two poems - forty in English and two in Italian - written between the ages of twelve and sixteen.
In his prefatory essay, "A Few Words to the Reader," Gaetano Polidori explains that Christina's earliest surviving poem, composed in 1842 for her mother's birthday, inspired him to preserve these youthful writings "in a permanent form" at his own private press. Although the volume originated as a family undertaking, copies were distributed beyond the immediate household, making this one of the rarest and most desirable of all Victorian first books.
Among its contents are several poems that anticipate the mature Rossetti, including "The Dead City," "The Water Spirit's Song," and a number of poems celebrating the rose, the flower that would become her lifelong personal emblem. Read alongside Goblin Market and her later collections, these early poems provide invaluable insight into the formation of one of the greatest poetic voices of the Victorian age.
The present copy possesses an association of exceptional intimacy. It was presented by Christina immediately upon publication to her aunt Eliza Harriet Polidori (1809-1893), sister of Christina's mother Frances Polidori. Following the deaths of Christina's parents, Eliza shared a home with Christina and her sister Maria, first in Upper Albany Street and later at Torrington Square, where Christina remained until her death in 1894.
Eliza herself was a remarkable Victorian figure. In 1854 she volunteered to join Florence Nightingale's nursing mission to the Crimea, serving at the Barrack Hospital at Scutari as superintendent of stores. Christina hoped to accompany her aunt but was considered too young. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, with characteristic family humor, famously referred to her as his "maniac aunt," yet she remained one of the strongest influences within the Rossetti household.
The volume later entered the library of Charles Plumptre Johnson, one of the earliest and most respected Rossetti bibliographers and collectors, whose engraved bookplate remains in the volume. Few later owners could have appreciated its literary importance more fully.
Copies of Verses are rare in any condition. Presentation copies are exceedingly uncommon, and examples inscribed to members of Christina Rossetti's immediate family are of the utmost rarity. Combined with its later ownership by Charles Plumptre Johnson and its sumptuous Zaehnsdorf exhibition binding, this is an outstanding copy of one of the great landmarks of Victorian literature.
References: Fredeman 44.2; Hayward 267; Ashley IV, p. 99; Tinker 1784; CBEL III, 497; CBEL (3) IV, 659; Marsh, Christina Rossetti, pp. 32-41, 72-76.
Price: $55,000.00