POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN MILTON With a Life of the Author by Wm. Haley. [Charles Hering] [British armorial binding]. Three volumes.
Printed by W. Bulmer and Co., Shakespear Printing Office, for John and Josiah Boydell, and George Nicol; from the types of W. Ma, 1794, 1795, 179. Item #98-7846
Bound by Charles Hering. Thirty-five plates with tissue guards, volume I has 13 plates by artists Giovanni Cipriani (3), William Gardiner (3), George Romney (1) and Richard Westall (6), volume II has 10 (all Westall), Volume III has 12 (all Westall) 17 x 13, contemporary straight grain red morocco, covers have three gold tooled rows: two floral and one Greek key with disc and three blind tooled rows: rosette, broken cable and filet, all corners have a gold eight pointed star within another within another gold star within a gold ruled octagon, flat spine with 14 gold tooled panels: alternating rows of floral, diamond and annular dots/chains with dots/overlapping scallops with dots, three panels with lettering: Milton’s Poetical Works/armorial stamp: bull’s head with an arrow surrounded by this motto: Prodesse Quam Conspici (to be useful rather than conspicuous), stamp is unknown (at least four British families have this motto but bull and arrow is not on their crests) with cupid’s heads, dots and rosettes in margins/volume I, volume II, volume III with cupid’s heads, stars and circles in margins, gold scroll pattern along cover edges, gold floral pattern on inner dentelles, gauffered edges, blue watered silk endpapers, bookbinder ticket on reverse of free front endpaper of volume I: Bound by C. HERING No. 10 London, all volumes have silk page markers. Covers have scuffing/scraping (esp volume III), spotting (esp volume I), scratches, rubbing, shelfwear, corners bumped and worn, spines darkened, volume I is missing small pieces from spine tips and lower headband and the outer/inner front hinges is cracked and cover is becoming detached. Contents: inner hinges cracked, endpapers fading, page markers frayed, offsetting, toning, spotting, smudging, volume I has detached title page and blank page with chipping and is almost detached, one plate torn out (but present) and a few tears; title page almost detached in volumes II and III, staining to volume III else all are tight and in good condition. The Boydells, well known for their "Shakespeare Gallery," honored Milton by publishing "The Poetical Works of John Milton," a three volume, "spare-no-expense," publication with contributions by well known artists. These sets were bound by various bookbinders including Charles Hering, C. Kalthoeber and F.B. Neumayer. During this time period of the late 18th c and early 19th c the passion for collecting books was at a fever pitch among the royalty and affluent nobles and gentlemen. The collectors wanted to enhance their new possessions and bookbinders had more work than they could manage. Charles Hering, a German native, started his business as a master bookbinder in London in 1794 at 34 St. Martins street and approximately a year later moved to 10 St. Martins Street. Hering was known as superior craftsman who created elegant bindings. Dibdin wrote about Hering: "No one could presume to ‘measure business’ with him. There was a strength, a squareness, and a good style of work about his volumes which rendered him deservedly a great favorite." Some of his clients included the Prince Regent, the 2nd Earl of Spencer, his mother-in-law the Countess Lucan, statesman Thomas Grenville, Lord Byron, landscape painter Joseph Farington, Curators of the Faculty of Advocates’ Library in Edinburgh. Some of the books he bound: the Book of Hours (1465), Pollux. Onomastican (1502), Harvey. Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium (1651), Curtis. Flora Londinensis (1775-78). Of the several copies of this set currently being offered for sale none are bound by Hering. A truly beautiful set, a fine example of Hering’s work.
Price: $3,500.00