[Fore-Edge Painting]. George Crabbe. The Life and Poetical Works of the Rev. George Crabbe. London: John Murray,...

Description

[Fore-Edge Painting]. George Crabbe. The Life and Poetical Works of the Rev. George Crabbe. Edited by His Son. Complete in One Volume. With Portrait and Vignette. London: John Murray, 1847. Octavo (9 x 5.75 inches; 229 x 145 mm). xii, 587 pages. Complete with steel-engraved frontispiece portrait and engraved title-page. Contemporary full red morocco, multi-framed panels rolled in gilt between which are single-fillet borders rolled in blind, spine lettered and tooled in gilt in compartments, five raised bands, gilt board edges and turn-ins, all edges gilt, fore-edge painting featuring women dancing in a garden. Engraved armorial book plate of William Deane affixed to front pastedown. Light foxing to plates and first and last leaves, boards with very light shelfwear, else a very good copy. In addition to its extraordinary binding, this copy of Crabbe's poetical works features a unique fore-edge painting from the later nineteenth century. The Victorian painting -- which depicts four women dancing in a garden with a neoclassical balustrade, all within an oval frame set with pink orchids -- combines stylistic elements from both the Pre-Raphaelite school and the early Art Nouveau movement.