First edition, first impression. xxx, 190pp, with fifty engraved illustrations after drawings by John Gilbert. In brown cloth-covered boards, with extensive gilt decorations and lettering on spine, bevelled edges, all edges gilt. 8vo. Boards are heavily worn, rubbed at edges and all around spine where the bottom third of the backstrip is absent. Endpapers spotted, with a pink tinge likely bled through from cloth. Moderate spotting on prelims, dwindling to faint, occasional spotting throughout. Pencil note on half-title. Includes explanatory notes and poetical parallels, but the volume is most notable for its fine production and the inclusion of John Gilbert's illustrations which were considered a landmark in the history of English book illustration. [See Gleeson White's English Illustration, The Sixties, 1857-70, p. 107]
Gilbert, John
Illustrated Books, Gleeson White,
