Description

Mid 19th Century Decorative and Illustrated Leather Volume Set, Anna Brownell Jameson's Works - 5 Books Description Offered is a mid 19th century finely bound leather volume set, Mrs. Jameson's Works, a collection of latter editions (1864-1867) founded on the author's first edition (1848-1864). Title: Mrs. Jameson's Works - History of Our Lord - 2nd edition - Vols. I (398 p.) & II (462 p.) [1865], Legends of the Madonna - 3rd edition - (344 p.) [1864], Legends of the Monastic Orders - 4th edition - (462 p.) [1867], Sacred and Legendary Art - 5th edition - Vols. I (394 p.) & Vol II (395-818p.) [1866]. Author: Mrs. Jameson (Commenced by the Late), Lady Eastlake (Continued and completed by) Illustrator(s): Mrs. Jameson, Gerardine Macpherson Publisher: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green. Printer: H. Spottiswoode and Co. Binder: H. Sotheran & Co. Publication dates: 1864-1867. Place: London. Binding/description: 2484 Pp. total, 8vo, H. (Henry) Sotheran & Co. binding, finely finished hardcovers in full morocco, with five raised bands, outer boards and spine decorated with gilt devices and ornamental border elements, gilt triple rule stamped borders accented by ribbon detail surround at edges, ornate interior dentelles accent exterior spine pattern, marbled endpapers, full gilt leaf edges, binder's stamp on front free endpaper, lower left corner. The volumes are profusely and lavishly illustrated with engravings and woodcuts. Overall dimensions: 10 (1.5 - 2 inch each) W 6.25 D x 8.5 H inches. Author note: The estimable lady, Mrs. Anna Brownell Jameson (1794-1860), whose maiden. name was Anna Murphy, was born in Dublin; she was the eldest daughter of Mr. Murphy, an artist of some celebrity, who held the appointment of Painter in Ordinary to the Princess Charlotte. By her order he undertook to copy Lely's "Windsor Beauties;" and engravings of these portraits were afterwards published, with illustrative memoirs from his daughter's pen. Two years after appeared her first work, The Diary of an Ennuyee. In 1823 the "princess-heroine " was married to Mr. Robert Jameson, who subsequently filled the office of Vice-Chancellor of Canada. The marriage, it is well known, was not a happy one, and was practically, though not legally, dissolved soon after its celebration. In the autumn of 1837 Mrs. Jameson visited Germany, where she made the acquaintance of the Princess Amalie of Saxony, translated some of her dramas, and appended to them notes of far more worth than the text. Towards the close of 1839 she returned to America, spent some months in Toronto, and on her return to England gave to the world the fruit of her observation, in a work entitled Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada, which she regarded peculiarly a record of her own social views and convictions. In 1842 she published the Handbook to the Public Galleries of Art in and near London, which was the first of a series of artistic works of subsequent production, — viz., on Sacred and Legendary Art, Legends of the Monastic Orders, Legends of the Madonna, &c. One of her last publications was a revised and enlarged edition of Memoirs of the Early Italian Painters. For two years past she had been engaged on a laborious and elaborately illustrated work, announced by Messrs. Longman, and nearly completed, The History of our Lord and of his Precursor, St. John the Baptist, with the Personages and Typical Subjects of the Old Testament as represented in Christian Art. As an art-critic Mrs. Jameson was almost unrivalled. She appreciated and expounded not only technical excellence, but the inward meaning of works of art; the relations they bear to the history of art itself, and the history of nations among whom they were created. Provenance/Binder note: Founded in York in 1761, established in London in 1815, Henry Sotheran Limited has a long and distinguished history. For over 250 years, Sotheran's has been offering unsurpassed opportunities to collectors and enthusiasts. Of note, the great American collector of Shakespeare, H.C. Folger, acquired much of his collection, including Halliwell-Phillipps library, through Sotheran's, and they were agents in the purchase of the world-famous Althorp Library from Earl Spencer for the John Rylands Library in 1892. Throughout their history and to this day, they have prided themselves on the quality and condition of their books, and their friendly service.