Poems; Dramatic and Lyrical (Second Series)

London: John Lane and the Bodley Head, 1895. First Edition. Octavo. 160 unopened pages, with 16 pages of publisher's ads. Limited to 550 copies for England only. Baron De Tabley is representative of the last stage of Victorian poetry which here has his poem "Circe". The Metropolitan Museum of Art writes this about their Ricketts collection: The revival of the arts of the book in the "aesthetic nineties" of the last century was not confined to typography and illustration alone; the exterior decoration of the book was also a matter of concern. Charles Ricketts, Cobden Sanderson, Douglas Cockerel, and others, both in England and on the Continent, opposed to the dull traditionalism-and worse-of the commercial binder freshness of invention, appropriateness of design and beauty. Among the most gifted of these pioneers, certainly the one whose influence has done most to ameliorate the decoration of publishers' bindings is Charles Ricketts. Fine examples of his work have become scarce. Bound by Leighton, Son & Hodge signed binding. (References: New checklist of book designed by Charles Ricketts & Charles Shannon, B11a; Krishnamuri, g. "The eighteen nineties" entry 193; Nelson, J.G. Checklist of early Bodley Head Books).