WORDSWORTH'S POEMS, SPLENDIDLY BOUND IN AN ART NOUVEAU INCISED CALF BINDING BY CEDRIC CHIVERS OF BATH

WORDSWORTH, William. Poems… Chosen and Edited by Matthew Arnold. London: Macmillan, 1892. Royal octavo, contemporary full tan calf, spine and front cover intricately modeled and incised, patterned endpapers, top edge gilt. $1800.

Later limited large-paper edition of Wordsworth's poems, one of only 250 copies (this copy unnumbered), selected and with a Preface by Matthew Arnold. This copy beautifully bound in a "sculpted" binding of incised and modeled calf in an Art Nouveau floral design by renowned English bookbinder Cedric Chivers of Bath.

"Wordsworth maintains his position, in general critical esteem, among the most eminent of the English line, many placing him third after Shakespeare and Milton" (Kunitz & Haycraft, 671). This selection, edited and with a preface by poet and critic Matthew Arnold, includes such classic verse as "Tintern Abbey," "Intimations of Immortality" and "The World Is Too Much With Us." "No poet has been more loved because none has expressed more forcibly and truly the deepest moral emotions" (DNB). Innovative bookbinder Cedric Chivers, perhaps more known for his trademark painted style of binding known as "vellucent," here instead has incised and modeled a three-dimensional Art Nouveau floral design into the front cover and spine of the calf binding, in a very appealing, yet understated sculpted design. Sarah Prideaux, in Modern Bookbindings, describes the process of embossing and cutting the leather by hand for this sort of binding: "The design is first drawn on paper, then transferred to tracing paper and traced through from this onto the leather… The process and very much like beaten and chased silver work, except that the soft leather has to be reinforced at the back with a cement, and while this cement is hardening, the front has to be modeled." Engraved vignette portrait on title page. Owner ink signature on the half title.

A lovely volume in fine condition.