THE BLESSED DAMOZEL
New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1886. First Edition. Hardcover. First edition thus. Folio: unpaginated with a decorated extra title page, dedication page, and title page, as well as 13 full-page plates and 4 vignettes, all photogravures after drawings by Kenyon Cox. In the publisher's dark tan diagonal fine-ribbed cloth binding, with beveled boards, brown and gilt-stamped front panel design of two women flanking a shield with "DGR" monogram and trailing ribbons before tree, and a gilt-stamped tree holding titling shields along the length of the spine. Top edge gilt, with patterned tan endpapers printed in gold. Scattered foxing to the contents, with a small University of Albuquerque (closed in 1986) ink stamp to the title page and a concluding blank leaf. Previous owner's ink signature and date (1894) to a prefatory blank leaf. The bookplate of American playwright and theatrical producer Blevins Davis (1903-71) appears on the front pastedown. Some mild rubbing to the gilt and along the extremities; otherwise very good. Provenance: from the Publishers' Bookbindings collection of Ellen K. Morris and Edward S. Levin.
Following on Rossetti's most successful poem, Kenyon Cox's "Blessed Damozel" was a landmark in printing and publisher's bookbinding in the United States for the period, and served to advance both Cox's career as an artist, as well as further popularize the Pre-Raphaelites to a growing American market. Very good. Item #78866
Price: $800.00