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CARMINA VOTIVA, AND OTHER OCCASIONAL VERSES.
(London: Printed [at the Chiswick Press] for Private Circulation, 1901). 196 x 143 mm. (7 3/4 x 5 1/2"). xi, [1], 99, [1] pp. No. 117 OF 125 COPIES, SIGNED by the author.
ESPECIALLY PRETTY OLIVE GREEN MOROCCO, GILT AND INLAID, BY ZAEHNSDORF (stamp-signed in gilt on front turn-ins, blind exhibition stamp to rear pastedown), covers with inlaid burgundy morocco frame, central panel with rows of inlaid red fleurs-de-lys, each rising from a gilt teardrop and surrounded by gilt pointillé tooling, smooth spine with three similar inlays, gilt lettering, turn-ins tooled with cresting gilt waves, olive green silk endleaves, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed. Original blue printed paper wrappers bound in. Spine evenly sunned to a soft brown (as usual with green morocco), flyleaves a little foxed, but A FINE COPY, clean, fresh, and bright internally, in an unworn binding.
This collection of elegant poems is offered in a luxurious Zaehnsdorf exhibition binding that represents the firm's work at its finest, glittering with impeccable skill and stylish flair. Our author, Henry Austin Dobson (1840-1921), was a poet of the Aesthete School, described by Day as a "genteel bureaucrat" who specialized in "the graceful insouciance of 'vers de société' rather than the 'flowers of evil'" favored by others of his cohort. His light, witty verse reflected his fascination with the 18th century; Day notes that "he could write heroic couplets with much of Pope's conversational ability" and "could reproduce the elaborate French stanzas" of triolet, ballade, and rondeau with a finesse matched by few Englishmen. The present strictly limited edition is made up of 60 previously unpublished poems written throughout Dobson's long career. The strikingly attractive binding is a fine example of the work of the Zaehnsdorf firm, long a top-ranked English bindery. Born in Pest, Hungary, Joseph Zaehnsdorf (1816-86) served his apprenticeship in Stuttgart, worked at a number of European locations as a journeyman, and then settled in London, where he was hired first by Westley and then by Mackenzie before opening his own workshop in 1842. His son and namesake took over the business at age 33, when the senior Joseph died, and the firm flourished under the son's leadership, becoming a leading West End bindery. Over the years, Zaehnsdorf employed a considerable number of distinguished binders, including the Frenchman Louis Genth (who was chief finisher from 1859-84), and trained a number of others, including Roger de Coverly and Sarah Prideaux. It is generally understood that the Zaehnsdorf firm reserved the use of its oval stamp showing a binder at work for their finest bindings, including those entered in exhibitions. The present binding, with its energizing pattern of rising plant forms, demonstrates the full range of the binder's skills, including crisp impressions of larger tools, delicate pointillé curves, and smoothly executed morocco inlays in richly harmonious colors. (ST20959)
Price: $6,000.00