Illustrated by F.R. Pickersgill, R.A., John Tenniel, Birket Foster, Felix Darley, Jasper Cropsey, P. Duggan, Percival Skelton, and A.M. Madot.
£1,995.00
Author: POE, Edgar Allan.
Publisher: London, Sampson Low. 1858
First illustrated edition.
8vo., handsomely bound by Kelliegram with their gilt stamp on lower turn-in. In full tan crushed morocco, boards with fine gilt panels enclosing quatrefoil cornerpieces in gilt and blind, spine lettered in gilt with raised bands with triple gilt rules, with elegant gilt panels, blind strapwork design from spine onto boards. With exceptional gauffering to all edges. Original decorative cloth boards and spine bound in at rear.
Kelliegram bindings are noted for their use of elaborate decorative leather onlays. This is appears to be a more subdued binding until the beautiful gauffering on the gilt edges is revealed.
“The Kelly family had one of the longest connections in the history of the binding trade in London, having been founded in 1770 by John Kellie, as the name was then spelled. The binding firm was carried on by successive members of the family into the 1930s. William Henry Kelly significantly developed the company in the first half of the nineteenth century, followed by William Henry, Jr., Henry, and Hubert Kelly, who took control in 1892, taking the firm into the twentieth century…The development [during the 1880s] that came to be known as Kelliegram was one of the bindery's most notable, and the popularity continues today as demonstrated by the prices Kelliegram bindings command at auction and in the rare book trade" (Dooley, Kelliegram Bindings, Brynmawr Library).