6 volumes. Extra-illustrated with some 257 additional plates, many hand-colored some inlaid to size. (8vo) 21.1x13.7 cm (8¼x5½") finely bound by Bayntun in brown full levant morocco bordered in gilt with spine tooled and lettered in gilt, raised bands, all edges gilt, gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers, silk ribbons. First Edition.
Laid in is an autograph letter signed by H.C. Robinson, dated 18th, Mar. 1845. "Sir, I am sorry to have forgotten that when at Mr. Wordsworth's I had told him he might put my name down as a subscriber to some work which was the subject of conversation. / Had your first letter named Mr. Wordsworth I should have recollected—I meant today to have sent you a post office order for the 10/subscription, but I was too late at the office –I write to prevent your troubling Mr. Wordsworth with a letter. I shall find it tomorrow...H.C. Robinson." Bookplates of previous owner.
Autobiographical writings by the noted English lawyer Henry C. Robinson. They contain reminiscences of central figures of the English romantic movement: including Coleridge, Charles Lamb, William Blake, William Wordsworth, and others. In his essay on Blake, Swinburne says, "Of all the records of these his latter years, the most valuable, perhaps, are those furnished by Mr. Crabb Robinson, whose cautious and vivid transcription of Blake's actual speech is worth more than much vague remark, or than any commentary now possible to give."
Condition:
A touch of sunning to spines with only hints of rubbing; cracked front hinge in
Vol. I, some dampstaining and mild foxing to plates, light ripple to leaves in a few volumes, soiling to preliminary blanks in Vol. V; about near fine.