Poems in English with Illustrations by William Blake. Paradise Lost, Miscellaneous Poems, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes.

MILTON, John (1608-1674); BLAKE, William (1757-1827).

London: The Nonesuch Press, 1926. [Literature] LIMITED EDITION in a fine bespoke binding. Quarto (26 x 16cm), two volumes, pp.359; 283. With fifty-three illustrations by William Blake reproduced in collotype. Letter press printing in the Italic type of Blado by Walter Lewis, printer of Cambridge University Press, on Van Gelder Rag Paper. Title page border and arabesque ornaments designed by Douglas Percy Bliss, printed in two colours. Hand-bound by MacLehose of Glasgow in full mid-blue crushed Levant, with elegant gilt strapwork to covers, gilt-panelled spine with twin rules, top edge gilt, others untrimmed (with an attractive heavy-deckle edge), subtle pink marbled endpapers. Clean throughout with very light spotting to prelims and final leaves. Bindings are pleasingly aged with gentle toning to the spine. A fine pair, in superb full morocco by one of the foremost British trade binderies. James MacLehose (1811-1885) began business as a bookseller in Glasgow in 1838, later bookseller and publisher to the University. Around 1862 he established a bookbinding shop working fine leather in his own style, with a perfection of workmanship seldom attained. The bindery continued to produce quality work well into the twentieth century, with examples held in the Hunterian Library, University of Glasgow. As James MacLehose & Sons, then MacLehose, Jackson & Co., Jackson, Wylie & Co., and finally the Maclehose Group, the firm was liquidated in 1982. John Milton is regarded as one of history's greatest poets and one of the pre-eminent writers in the English language, revered by poets such as William Blake, whose etchings first embellish the present work in 1808. Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. Item #70746

Price: £1,250.00