Christmas With the Poets

David Bogue, 1851. First Edition. Hardcover. Birket Foster. Wm. Shailer from his friend Geo. E. Stove Oct. 25th 1852. None Tight binding, guilted title and spine, guilted page edges, some foxing on some pages. Inscribed inside cover. Christmas with the Poets. A Collection of Songs, Carols, and Descriptive Verses Relating to the Festival of Christmas. Beautiful First Edition with original Victorian leather covered boards with five raised bands on the spine with guilt stamped florals and gilt text in the compartments and elaborate guilt stamped embossing on the boards. A small quarto of 9 1/4 by 6 1/4 inches with the edges of the text block gilt and with gilt dentelles on the leather turn-ins. Engraved full color title page. The contents are tightly bound-in and the entire text is extremely neat. Some pages have some foxing. 187 pages each decorated with a gold border around the print. This is a major anthology of Christmas songs and poems that begins with Anglo-Norman songs and ends with contemporary poets, with full explanatory notes of each piece, providing their histories and textual source all in context of evolving Christmas customs at different periods. This title includes works by Shakespeare, Jonson, Wither, Thorn, Cowper, Scott, Shelley, Wordsworth, Thackeray and Tennyson. The engraved plates and vignettes are from illustrations by Birket Foster which were engraved by Vizetelly. Many of the plates and vignettes are tinted. Very scarce title in first edition in a beautiful example of a Victorian full leather binding. Oversized or heavy volume, additional shipping charges will apply. Please ask for additional photos prior to purchasing. We are happy to send additional photos. 6 LR