LOT #45031 |
Sold on Sep 10, 2025 for: Sign-in
or Join (free & quick)
Robert Browning. Red Cotton Night-Cap Country. London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1873....
Click the image to load the highest resolution version.
Description
Robert Browning. Red Cotton Night-Cap Country. London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1873.8vo. 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 this / poem, - may his friends read it / with a little pleasure! / 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; light rubbing to boards; some wear at edges and extremities; spine labels chipped or defective.
References: Broughton, Northup & Pearsall A98; Tinker 428; Wise, Browning, p. 32.
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. From the William A. Strutz Library.
View all of [The William A. Strutz Library ]
Auction Info
2025 September 10 - 11 Important English and American Literature: The William A. Strutz Library, Part III, Rare Books Signature® Auction #6321 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
September, 2025
10th-11th
Wednesday-Thursday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 3
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
Page Views: 138
Buyer's Premium per Lot:
25% of the successful bid per lot.
Shipping, Taxes, Terms and Bidding
Terms and Conditions | Bidding Guidelines and Bid Increments | Glossary of Terms
Important information concerning Sales Tax and Resale Certificates. Learn More
Terms and Conditions | Bidding Guidelines and Bid Increments | Glossary of Terms