I have been in the rare and antiquarian book business for over forty years; my family has been in the rare books business since 1876. Rare books are in my blood.
Robert Browning’s Complete Works
New York: Fred DeFau & Company, 1910. Item #06416
Robert Browning in a Striking Monastery Hill Binding
The Florentine Edition - Elegantly Decorated with Inlaid Floral Tooling
BROWNING, Robert. Complete Works. With an introductory essay by William Lyon Phelps. New York: Fred DeFau & Company, [1910].
Florentine Edition. Limited to 1,000 numbered sets, this being copy number 697.
Twelve octavo volumes (8 1/2 x 5 3/4 inches; 216 x 146 mm.). Additional decorative title-pages printed in red, green, and gold, with color frontispieces and numerous photogravure plates throughout.
Handsomely bound circa 1910 by The Monastery Hill Bindery in three-quarter red morocco over pink marbled boards ruled in gilt, spines with two raised bands, elaborately decorated and lettered in gilt with floral tooling, each spine featuring a distinctive cream morocco onlay forming the head of a stylized flower. Pink marbled endpapers, top edges gilt. The spines uniformly mellowed, as often encountered with red morocco, otherwise a remarkably well-preserved and highly decorative near fine set.
A particularly attractive American fine binding of the works of one of the towering figures of Victorian poetry.
Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues - psychological, intellectual, and often startlingly modern in voice - transformed English poetry and established him as one of the great literary innovators of the nineteenth century.
Among his most celebrated works are My Last Duchess, Fra Lippo Lippi, Andrea del Sarto, The Ring and the Book, and the enduring lyric sequence Men and Women.
Issued in the handsome Florentine Edition and enriched with decorative title-pages and photogravure illustrations, this set is further distinguished by its unusual and highly individual Monastery Hill binding. The bindery, active in Chicago during the early twentieth century, became known for richly ornamental designs combining Arts and Crafts sensibilities with traditional fine-binding techniques. The present set, with its delicate floral onlays and harmonious color scheme, is an especially appealing example of their work.
Price: $2,000.00