PARADISE LOST. A SERIES OF TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS.
- London: John C. Nimmo, 1896.
- folio
- original two-color buckram, front cover illustrated and lettered in black, gilt spine.
- 28 pages (including prelims, the arguments for each section of Paradise Lost, and captions opposite the plates)
Price: $3,500.00 other currencies
Order Nr. 136948
The first edition, beautifully printed in an edition of 150 numbered copies. Foxing throughout, however the plates are not effected. Light fraying to the top hinge of the front cover along the spine. Very light shelfwear. Very light toning to the boards. Etched portrait of Milton as well as additional title page, with 10 plates by and after William Strang tipped into window mounts. A splendid visual interpretation of the epic life of Adam & Eve as written by Milton. The plates are on paper, mounted & enclosed in cardboard mats.
Provenance: with the bookplate of Laurence W. Hodson (1864-1933) at the bottom of the front pastedown. Hodson was a founder of Birmingham University, patron of the Guild of Handicraft, and a friend of William Morris. He was also a well-known collector of pre-Raphaelite paintings. Hodson's home, Compton Hall, has the wallpaper refurbished by Morris & Co. in 1896. Presumably Hobson did this at the same time as he engaged William Morris and Company to redesign the interior in 1895-6. These decorations are still largely in place. In 1902 Hodson served as Chairman of the Fine Art Committee for the Wolverhampton Art and Industrial Exhibition. His booklabel was printed by the Kelmscott Press after Morris' death, using his Golden Type (cf. Peterson, A Bibliography of the Kelmscott Press, D10.8). Hodson's library was auctioned at Bloomsbury Auctions in London in 2013.