AN INQUIRY INTO THE AUTHENTICITY OF VARIOUS PICTURES AND PRINTS, WHICH, FROM THE DECEASE OF THE POET TO OUR OWN TIMES HAVE BEEN OFFERED TO THE PUBLIC AS PORTRAITS OF SHAKESPEARE

London: Robert Triphook, 1824. FIRST EDITION. 233 x 143 mm. (9 1/8 x 5 3/4"). 2 p.l., v, [3], 206 pp., [1] leaf (ads).
HANDSOME SCARLET MOROCCO BY RIVIERE & SON (stamp-signed on front turn-in), front cover WITH FIVE MINIATURE PORTRAITS OF SHAKESPEARE on ivory under glass ALMOST CERTAINLY BY MISS C. B. CURRIE, surrounded by delicate gilt tooling, rear cover and spine compartments framed by double gilt fillets, raised bands, gilt lettering to two compartments, gilt-ruled turn-ins, olive green silk endleaves, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed. In a maroon fleece-lined slipcase. With five engraved plates reproducing portraits of Shakespeare. Jaggard, pp. 586-87. ◆Slight wear to silk endleaves at front hinge, isolated small printing smudges or other trivial defects, final leaf (ads) with short closed tear at head, otherwise A VERY FINE COPY, the text with no signs of use, and the splendid binding in perfect condition.

This analysis of portraits purporting to depict Shakespeare is the perfect vehicle for a Cosway binding, used here to present the leading contenders on the front cover (these likenesses also appear on engraved plates in the book). The portrait at the center of our cover is considered the most authoritative, being that done by Martin Droeshout for the First Folio of 1623. The other portraits shown in the plates and in the miniatures are the Chandos Head, the Stratford Bust, the engraving by W. Marshall from the 1640 edition of the poems, and the Jansen portrait of 1610. A Shakespeare scholar who raised the alarm about forgeries of Shakespeare manuscripts in the 1790s, Boaden (1762-1839) sets forth here (as indicated in the preface) "a careful examination of the evidence" by which "the pretended portraits have been rejected, [and] the genuine confirmed and established." The so-called "Cosway" binding, with painted miniatures inlaid in handsome morocco--either inside or (as here) on the outside of the front cover--apparently originated with the London bookselling firm of Henry Sotheran about 1909. In that year, G. C. Williamson's 1905 book entitled "Richard Cosway" (which celebrated the career of this leading Georgian and Regency miniature painter) was remaindered by Sotheran and presumably given this special decorative treatment in order to boost sales. The name "Cosway" then was used to describe any book so treated, whatever its subject. The finest miniatures on Cosway bindings were executed by Caroline Billin Currie (1849-1940), who is known to have created such paintings for Sotheran's from 1910 until her death, usually from designs by J. H. Stonehouse, and typically for bindings executed, as here, by Riviere. Not present in this volume is an inserted leaf acknowledging Currie's work--something normally seen with Cosway bindings featuring her miniatures; but she has a distinctive deftness to her brush strokes and a recognizably refined execution that are clearly present here. The precision and detail of these portraits, and the wonderfully expressive eyes are hallmarks of her work..