The Princess: A Medley Tennyson, Alfred Literature & Fiction: General

~Original full dark blue cloth over bevelled boards. Elaborately gilt and blind decor over entire surface of boards, with delicate blind tracery of stylised leaves and vines and intricate gilt frames surrounding central vellum inlay to both boards, decorated in gilt with a couple embracing, after illus on p. 31. Ornate gilt decor and lettering to spine. Slight wear to board edges, spine somewhat cocked and very mildly faded. All edges gilt. 8vo (16 x 22.5cm). Hinges sound. Inscription in early hand to front free endpaper. One or two spots of foxing only. With 26 in-text illustrations engraved by Dalziel, Green, Thomas, and E. Williams after drawings by the celebrated history painter and illustrator Daniel Maclise: this 1860 publication was the first edition to include these wood engravings, Maclise's only complete set of illustrations for a Tennyson work. The Princess, first published in 1847, includes 'three of Tennyson's finest lyrics- 'Tears, idle tears', 'Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white', and 'Come down, O maid, from yonder mountain height'' (ODNB). A remarkable achievement in mid-Victorian book design. ~Robust packaging. Overseas orders trackable on request. Size: 188pp