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THE SALAMANDRINE; OR LOVE AND IMMORTALITY.
(London: John J. Griffin and Co., 1848). 198 x 126 mm. (7 3/4 x 5"). 2 p.l., v, [1], 145, [1] pp. Second Edition.
FINE GREEN STRAIGHT-GRAIN MOROCCO, GILT, BY ROGER DE COVERLY (stamp-signed on verso of front free endpaper), covers with fillet border and stippled cornerpieces featuring graceful leaves emanating from an urn, raised bands, spine panels densely stippled, with floral sprigs radiating from a central circlet, gilt lettering, turn-ins with floral vines extending from corner circlets, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Front board with two short, faint scratches (back cover with one), otherwise very fine--clean and fresh internally, in a lovely binding bright with gilt.
This epic poem about a nymph and the mortal whose love will provide her entry into heaven comes is a very pretty binding by one of the most accomplished binders in England during the latter part of the 19th century. Roger de Coverly (1831-1914) was apprenticed to Zaehnsdorf in 1845, worked for J. & J. Leighton from ca. 1852-63, then established his own bindery. In the 1880s, his bindings were in great demand, as were his services as a teacher: he undertook a good deal of work for William Morris, and he counted among his illustrious students the younger Charles McLeish as well as the greatest of all English bookbinders, T. J. Cobden-Sanderson, who served an apprenticeship with him in 1883-84. Working mostly in the classical style, De Coverly and his two sons demonstrated craftsmanship that was consistently of the highest quality. The story of Amethysta the Salamandrine and her lover Gilbert was inspired by a Rosicrucian romance and by the story of the water sprite Undine. According to the preface, though of epic length, it was written in the meter of a ballad so that the poet "might be wild or ornate, smooth or abrupt, sprightly or solemn, gay or dignified, as occasion demanded." After a peripatetic childhood, Charles MacKay (1812-89) sought to earn his living as a writer, and succeeded as both a journalist and a poet. According to DNB, his "passionate erudition and urbane, unaffected prose style contributed to make him one of the chief figures in the establishment of Victorian journalism as a dignified profession," while his popular poems and songs, heavily influenced by the Scottish ballads of his childhood, earned him the title of "Poet of the People." (ST20608)
Price: $1,250.00