(BINDINGS - DOVES BINDERY). LAMB, CHARLES.

[THE WORKS.]

(London: Macmillan and Co., 1891-98). 178 x 121 mm (7 x 4 3/4"). Seven volumes.

FINE HONEY BROWN CRUSHED MOROCCO, HANDSOMELY GILT, BY THE DOVES BINDERY (stamp-signed with the bindery name and "18 C - S 98" on rear turn-in of each volume), raised bands, spines in extremely attractive gilt compartments featuring dense gouge work in the shape of stemmed hearts, along with open circles and circlets, turn-ins ruled in gilt with cornerpieces incorporating heart and tulip tools, all edges gilt (and with stippled gauffering). Frontispiece portrait of Lamb in volume V. Tidcombe 390 (for the binding). Joints of first volume a little worn at juncture of raised bands, extremely slight wear to joints and extremities of other volumes, spines uniformly sunned to a very pleasing lighter brown (minor irregular fading to small areas on the covers), but still A MOST ATTRACTIVE SET, the beautifully designed bindings solid and with no significant wear, and pristine internally.

This very appealing set is probably #390 in Marianne Tidcombe's "The Doves Bindery," executed using the Doves workshop Pattern 554a. Tidcombe describes two sets bound to this pattern, one in brown (presumably this set) and one in green, both sold (for £20 each) to Scribner's late in 1898 or early in 1899. (For more on the Doves Bindery, see previous entry.) Works in this set are "The Essays of Elia," "Poems, Plays and Miscellaneous Essays," "Mrs. Leicester's School and Other Writings in Prose and Verse," "Tales from Shakespeare," "The Letters" (in two volumes), and A. Ainger's memoir, "Charles Lamb." Lamb is chiefly remembered as "the prince of English essayists." According to Day, Lamb contributed to the essay form by concentrating on feeling, rather than thought, by projecting a fuller sense of self into the work, and by imbuing his text with a poetic or lyrical quality. Charles Lamb (1775-1834) was educated at Christ's Hospital, where he formed a lasting relationship with Coleridge. At 17 he joined the East India House, where he worked from 1792-1825. In 1796, Lamb's sister Mary (1764-1847) stabbed and killed their mother with scissors in a fit of insanity. Charles took on her care as well as serving as sole support for a dying aunt and a prematurely senile father. For the two years preceding this catastrophe, Lamb himself had experienced a period of derangement in his early twenties that haunted him the rest of his life. Nonetheless, Lamb and his sister were devoted to one another and lived long and productive lives, publishing together the wildly popular "Tales from Shakespeare" (1807) and "Mrs. Leicester's School" (1809). Sets as large as seven volumes that were bound at the Doves Bindery have a special appeal because they constitute an obviously greater expanse of lovely leather on the shelf and because such sets exist only in quite small numbers. (ST11185)