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Description

Robert Browning. Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau. Saviour of Society. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1871.

8vo. Contemporary tree calf, boards with roll-tooled gilt borders, spines gilt in compartments and with gilt morocco lettering-pieces, marbled edges; quarter morocco slipcase.

FIRST EDITION. PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS FRIENDS [George Lillie and Dinah Craik] on the front flyleaf: "Robert Browning wrote / what he is glad to find / such friends keep and care for. / Nov. 30. '75."

George Craik was a partner in Macmillan and Co., who married the author Dinah Maria Mulock in 1864. Mulock was a friend and correspondent of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and dedicated her novel The Head of the Family (1852) to Elizabeth. The present volume appears to be part of a group of works inscribed by Browning to the Craiks in late November 1875.

A group of his works, similarly bound and inscribed on the 30th of November, were sold together at Christie's London in November 2003. More recently, a copy of Pauline; a Fragment of a Confession (1833), similarly bound and inscribed the same day, was sold in Part I of the Strutz Library at Heritage Auctions, Dallas, 27 June 2024. And three other works by Browning from the same cache, similarly bound and inscribed the same day, were sold in Part II of the Strutz Library in December 2024.

Condition: Rebacked preserving original spine; some wear at edges and extremities; spine labels a little chipped (slightly affecting one or two letters).

References: Broughton, Northup & Pearsall A96; Tinker 426; Wise, Browning, pp. 30-31.

Provenance: George Lillie Craik (bookplates); possibly the estate of T. L. Hood (according to Kelley and Coley); acquired by Seven Gables Bookshop, c. 1977; purchased from Seven Gables Bookshop, New York, 26 August 1975. From the William A. Strutz Library.


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Auction Info

Auction Dates
September, 2025
10th-11th Wednesday-Thursday
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