Description
First edition of The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club by Charles Dickens, in a stunning Cosway-Style Binding.
Octavo, xiv, [2], 609pp, [7]. Full green morocco over beveled boards, title in gilt on the spine. All edges gilt. Five decorative raised bands, gilt lettering and decorative compartments. Doublures with inlaid red morocco and gilt dentelles. Inset hand-colored portrait of Dickens after paintings by Daniel Maclise, under glass with brass frame, in front doublure. Bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe for Charles J. Sawyer, LTD of London. Front hinge reinforced with archival leather restoration, almost indistinguishable.
This work is the second issue of the text, with the half-title, the corrected “W” in Weller on the vignette title, “loud knocking” on page 18 is slightly mutilated, signature “E” present on pages 25 and 27, and pagination present for page 26. Solid text block, light wear to edges of some leaves, faint foxing. Complete with vignette title page, frontispiece portrait and 41 illustrated plates by Robert Seymour and H.K. Brown (“Phiz”).
(Smith I, 3) (Hatton & Cleaver 3-88pp)
A beautiful Cosway-Style binding.
The Cosway-style binding originated in London in the early 20th Century, created by bookseller and Dickens scholar, John Harrison Stonehouse. The style was named after Richard Cosway (1742-1821), the celebrated English miniaturist painter, known for his delicate portrait work. Stonehouse commissioned Sangorski & Sutcliffe to create bindings that incorporated miniature watercolor portraits set into the covers under glass. These miniatures-painted on ivory by artists such as Miss C.B. Currie-were often portraits of the book’s author, a key character, or a historical figure related to the text. Each was framed within the leather cover, usually of richly gilt morocco, and accompanied by elaborate tooling and jeweled ornamentation. The style became a hallmark of Edwardian luxury bookbinding. After the deaths of Sangorski (1912) and later Currie, the tradition continued under Sutcliffe and later firms, and “Cosway-style” came to denote any binding featuring such inset miniatures, even when produced elsewhere.
