[Fore-Edge Painting]. Robert Burns. The Works of Robert Burns. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1850. "New Edition." Wit...

Description

[Fore-Edge Painting]. Robert Burns. The Works of Robert Burns. With Life by Allan Cunningham. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1850. "New Edition." Octavo (8.875 x 5.75 inches; 221 x 146 mm). [4], xxiv, 820 pages. Complete with steel-engraved frontispiece portrait, title-page, and dedication; and two folding plates comprising facsimiles of Burns's manuscript for 'Scots Wha Hae Wi' Wallace Bled' and a manuscript letter about the poem from Burns to Captain Miller of Dalswinton. Original tissue guard bound between the frontis and engraved title. Contemporary full dark-green morocco, thick-thin borders rolled in blind with tiny rosettes stamped in blind at the corners. Panel design tooled in gilt with frames built of a double-fillet and floral roll patterns; floral stamps at angles within the corners of the inner frame; and gilt pictorial centerpieces with shepherd's crook, horn, and oak tree. Spine elaborately tooled and lettered in six compartments, five raised bands, gilt board edges, turn-ins with floral pattern rolled in blind, cream-colored endpapers, all edges gilt, fore-edge painting featuring two views of the Thames. Engraved armorial bookplate of Major General (later Lieutenant General) Edward Hopton, C.B., affixed to front pastedown. Front flyleaf with a gift inscription to Hopton dated 1854, i.e., the year he joined the British Army. Some minor shelfwear and very light foxing to plates. A light water stain along the outer edge of the folding plates, and a one-inch tear to the first folding plate, totally unaffecting the images in both instances. Overall a very good copy. A handsome copy in a sumptuous binding of Burns's complete works. When the pages of the text block are fanned, a lovely contemporary fore-edge painting is revealed, featuring two views of the Thames and the skyline of middle 19th-century London.