Tag Archive: 0nineteenth century

I blogged last year about the idea of books being ‘fashionably orange’. Here’s another example: This is a copy of the first edition of Die natürliche Tochter, the last of Goethe’s three verse dramas in the classical style, which had received its premiere, in Weimar, in April 1803. This copy is in the original orange […]

There is something about orange publishers’ bindings that has always appealed, for some reason. It’s not a common colour and perhaps that’s why they always leap out at me. I blogged about this example, from 1851, back in 2012: But when did such orange covers start? The question occurred to me recently when I was […]

Published in Boston in 1855, this is a sumptuous gift-book edition of Byron’s works, in the preparation of which ‘the publishers have spared no expense or delay in making it entirely complete.  In its progress through the press, it has undergone the careful supervision of a distinguished literary gentleman; and its proprietors feel that they […]

This is a copy of the first published edition (c.1817) of the twelve romances Hortense de Beauharnais (1783–1837) wrote for her brother, Eugène, originally privately printed (with French text only), in limited numbers for presentation while she was still Queen of Holland, after which the plates were destroyed.  What may be a proof copy, inscribed […]

Some of you may be familiar with The Triumphes of Oriana, the famous book of madrigals by various Elizabethan composers compiled by Thomas Morley in 1601 in honour of Elizabeth I. The late Queen Elizabeth II received a similar choral compilation in 1953: A Garland for the Queen, with pieces by the likes of Bliss, […]

On the evening of 27 April 1848, at St James’s Theatre in London, a special charity performance of Colman’s comedy The Heir-at-Law took place, to raise funds for the Artists’ General Benevolent Institution (founded 1814 and still in existence today). It was billed as an ‘Artists’ Amateur Performance’, and all the male roles were taken […]