Paradise and the Peri.
London: Day & Son, 1860. Owen Jones, Henry Warren, Albert Warren. Leather. This is the spectacularly illustrated and sumptuously produced 1860 edition of Irish poet Thomas Moore’s popular tale from his 1817 “oriental romance” epic Lalla Rookh. The edition was designed and illuminated by pioneering Welsh architect, designer, design theorist, and, last but not least, book artist, Owen Jones (1809-1874). Jones worked in collaboration with English painter, draughtsman, and illustrator, Henry Warren (1794-1879). Both are credited. The publisher, Day & Son, was at the time one of London’s premier chromolithographic publishing houses and this book is regarded as a high point of mid-Victorian chromolithography. The book is a massive 13 x 10 inches, and weighs nearly four pounds. The contents, with their dense, jewel-like, color illustrations, are printed on extravagantly thick sheets, which are bound with all edges gilt. The effect, as intended, is to impart a sense of an illuminated manuscript. The binding is full brown Morocco, elaborately gilt tooled, with equally elaborate gilt dentelle turn-ins framing dark gray endpapers. The binding was commissioned from The Harcourt Bindery, which was founded in 1900 and so-named in 1902, when it set up shop on 17 Harcourt Street in Boston.
Condition is very good. The fine binding remains square, clean, and tight, the joints sound despite its size. We note light, even toning to the spine and modest shelf wear to the corners, this likely attributable, in part, to the book's placement in and removal from the accompanying slipcase. The slipcase appears original to the binding, the beveled and rounded opening edges trimmed in the same leather as the binding. The sides of the slipcase are light brown cloth, the interior lined with light brown ribbed felt. The slipcase is intact, with expected superficial shelf wear. The book's contents are clean and complete, including all of the heavy guard papers interleaved between the illustrated pages. Age toning is mild. We find no spotting or soiling and the gilt edges remain bright. The first leaf of the tale shows a .625 inch closed tear to the fore edge, confined to the blank margin. There are two owner bookplates on the front pastedown. The first, affixed to the pastedown, is the armorial bookplate of Jonathan Ackerman Coles (1843–1926), a Newark physician, art collector, and philanthropist. The second bookplate, clearly later as it is tipped onto and covering the Coles bookplate, is that of “Harry E. Isaacs MD.” We assume the book passed directly from Dr. Coles to Dr. Isaacs based on the inked inscription on the upper left front free endpaper verso: "Gift of Dr. J. Ackerman Coles and of Emilie S. Coles." Emilie Smith Coles (1845–1919) was the sister of Jonathan Ackerman Coles. Item #008565
Price: $500.00