COMPLETE SET OF THOMAS HOOD’S ILLUSTRATED COMIC ANNUAL, BEAUTIFULLY BOUND

HOOD, Thomas. Comic Annual. London: Charles Tilt; A.H. Baily; Henry Colburn, 1830-39, 1842 (not published in 1840-41). Eleven volumes. Small octavo, early 20th-century full tan calf, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, green and red morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. $1950.

Eleven-year complete run of this humorous serial, which “like the celebrated Elephant, has no rival but himself.” Illustrated with engraved frontispieces and numerous in-text wood-engravings after Hood’s own drawings, handsomely bound by Bedford.

“There were two sides to Hood’s poetical character, either of which would have given him distinction; but his great and unique reputation rests upon the performances in which they appeared in combination. As a poet in the more conventional and restricted sense he was graceful, delicate, and tender,” while “as a humorist he was exuberant and endowed with a perfectly exceptional faculty of playing upon words” (DNB). Viz: “There is an English proverb of ‘Laugh and grow fat… and truly, having seen gentlemen of twenty stones in their seats, I am ready to allow that a fat man is always a cheerful.” Hood’s career as a humorist began in 1826 with a two-year series called Whims and Oddities. “The Comic Annual, commenced in 1830, was a more substantial undertaking, and met with the most favorable reception” (DNB). None published in 1840-41. Bookplates.

Expert restoration to very attractive bindings.