ONE OF ONLY 250 COPIES OF MACKAY'S LOVER'S LITANIES, BEAUTIFULLY BOUND BY MEUNIER

MACKAY, Eric. A Lover's Litanies. London: Field & Tuer, 1888. Small square octavo, contemporary full brown morocco, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spine and boards with black and red morocco onlays, patterned endpapers, all edges gilt and guaffered. $4200.

Limited first edition, number 209 of only 250 copies signed by the publisher on the half title, beautifully bound by leading French Belle Epoque binder Charles Meunier in an elaborately gilt binding with floral patterns and onlays and gauffered edges.

Victorian poet Eric Mackay was the brother of popular novelist Marie Corelli and the son of Charles Mackay, author of the important and influential Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. The beautiful binding is by noted French binder Charles Meunier. Controversial in his time, Meunier was an acknowledged talent who offended more conservative sensitivities with his combinations of traditional and innovative techniques and motifs. (See Duncan & De Bartha, Art Nouveau and Art Deco Bookbinding: French Masterpieces 1880-1940, pp. 137-43, 194-95.). Bookplate of Edwin B. Holden, an original member of the Grolier Club and first president of the Club bindery.

Fine condition.