[BINDING - VICTORIAN]. HUMPHREYS, Henry Noel (1810-1879). Sentiments and Similes of William Shakespeare. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1851.
8vo (190 x 148 mm). First leaf of text within a chromolithographed border and with an historiated initial, text embellished with gilt. Original morocco-backed decorative papier-mâché boards with cut-out design over gilt cloth set with a central inset portrait of Shakespeare on upper cover and his initials and a laurel wreath to the lower cover, turn-ins gilt, edges gilt (spine ends neatly refurbished); folding case. Provenance: early armorial bookplate; Anthony David Estill; Robin de Beaumont (1926-2023), former President of The Private Libraries Association and one of the leading experts in Victorian decorative bindings (book label).
FIRST EDITION. An example of Humphrey's "embellishment" of significant passages in the plays and poems of Shakespeare by "enshrining them, as it were, in a reliquary as rich as a combination of the typographic and lithochromic arts could form" (preface). McLean, Victorian Book Design p.104.
Property from the Estate of Peter Fortsas