WORKS OF LORD BYRON WITH HIS LETTERS AND JOURNALS AND HIS LIFE

Byron, George Gordon Lord. THE WORKS OF LORD BYRON WITH HIS LETTERS AND JOURNALS AND HIS LIFE. London: John Murray, 1832-33. 17 vols. First edition thus, second issue of the first volume (with spine gilt directly on cloth rather than on label). Original dark green moire muslin, gilt. Mild dust and some normal aging, else a fine set, unread, with virtually no wear. Usually found rebound, this edition of Byron (with Thomas Moore's biography) is a landmark in the history of book-binding, being the first example of gilt-stamping on regular book cloth. As early as November, 1827, some English silk bindings had been stamped in gilt (THE AMULET and THE KEEPSAKE for 1828), but this was the first book bound in a regular book-cloth (muslin) to be so stamped, and marked a revolutionary step in the production methods for publishers' bindings. The process was developed by John Young, an assistant to Archibald Leighton. The first volume of this set was prepared with a dark green glazed paper spine label stamped in gilt (Sadleir says the first two volumes), but the new process of gilding cloth directly was used for the first time on the second volume (and all subsequent volumes in the set). Later issues of the first volume were also stamped directly in gilt, as here. Ball illustrates a badly chipped copy of this book. NCBEL III:271. Ball, VICTORIAN PUBLISHERS' BINDINGS, pp. 17-19. Sadleir, EVOLUTION OF PUBLISHERS' BINDING STYLES, pp. 49-50.