THE POETICAL WORKS

London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1851. 214 x 148 mm. (8 3/8 x 5 3/4"). xx, 368 pp.
Contemporary black pebble-grain morocco, gilt, covers with frame in the Romantic style, raised bands, spine compartments with central floral sprig, fleuron cornerpieces, gilt lettering, gilt-rolled turn-ins, all edges gilt. WITH A FINE FORE-EDGE PAINTING OF CONWY CASTLE IN WALES. With engraved frontispiece portrait and extra engraved title page with vignette. Front free endpaper with ink owner inscription of John Bassett Hallam, dated July 1882; front flyleaf with affectionate presentation inscription to Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Hallam from James Bassett dated 28 September 1852. ◆Spine a little dulled, general minor wear to the leather, frontispiece and title page rather foxed, occasional foxing or minor smudges to text, but still a very good copy (especially for a volume that would normally experience frequent manipulation to view the painting)--generally clean and fresh, in a solid binding with surprisingly little wear to the joints, and with the fore-edge painting in fine condition.

An atmospheric view of the forbidding 13th century fortress Conwy Castle adorns the fore edge of this collection of poetry by Sheffield writer and hymnist James Montgomery (1771-1854). The son of Moravian missionaries, Montgomery earned his living running a newspaper, the Sheffield Iris, but his passion since childhood had been poetry. When jailed for publishing an article celebrating the fall of the Bastille (unnerving to royalists in England), he wrote the "Prison Amusements" included here. He was a staunch abolitionist, and our volume also contains his poems celebrating the outlawing of the slave trade and freeing of slaves in the British West Indies. He is remembered today as a hymn writer, and "stands worthily alongside Wesley and Watts" in that capacity, in the opinion of DNB. Our fore-edge painting is very likely contemporary with the binding, the appealing scene beneath the gilt providing the finishing touch on a lovely gift to a close friend. A bridge extends from the castle wall across a foreground river, adding a sense of depth to the scene. A sailboat on the river and two boys perched on the bank across from the castle bring a bit of lightness to an otherwise forbidding prospect..