1880 Scarce Routledge Binding with Brass Edges- Milton’s Paradise Lost, Regained
Author: John Milton. Illustrated by William Harvey.
Title: The Poetical Works of John Milton. A New Edition, Carefully Revised, from the Text of Thomas Newton, D.D. With Illustrations by William Harvey.
Publisher: London: George Routledge and Sons, The Broadway, Ludgate; New York: 416 Broome Street. [c.1880s].
Language: Text in English.
Size: 6.5 x 4 inches.
Pages: viii- 570 pages.
Binding: Attractive and good, exceptionally scarce publisher’s decorative white cloth binding, lavishly stamped in gilt, red, blue, and green, featuring a central floral vase within ornate scrolling and garland borders. The spine richly gilt and lettered “MILTON,” with intricate geometric tooling and floral embellishment.
The boards and spine are framed with original polished brass/metal edges, a luxury feature reserved for Routledge’s finest Poets series bindings, designed to protect and ornament the volume. (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown, light wear consistent with age, including a 1-inch split to the lower spine edge, as shown, but the binding remains tight, square, and highly decorative) under a protective removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean, foxing and light stains mainly to the preliminary and final leaves - as shown).
Illustrations: Richly illustrated throughout with fine engraved plates by William Harvey, including a dramatic frontispiece for “Paradise Lost”. Harvey’s illustrations capture Milton’s visionary grandeur — angels in celestial battle, the expulsion from Eden, and the serene melancholy of Paradise Regained — blending classical restraint with Romantic intensity. Complete.
Estimate: (USD 250 – 300).
The book: A splendid and scarce Routledge’s Poets edition of John Milton’s Poetical Works, presented in one of the publisher’s most opulent bindings — the white enamelled cloth with brass edge protectors. This binding, with its vivid color printing and metallic framing, was intended as both a collector’s gift and a showpiece of Victorian craftsmanship. It epitomizes the late 19th-century fascination with making poetry volumes into objets d’art — to be displayed as much as read.
The author: John Milton (1608 – 1674), England’s great epic poet, transformed theology and politics into verse of majestic power. Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes cemented his place as one of literature’s immortals — the poet of reason, rebellion, and redemption.
The illustrator: William Harvey (1796 – 1866), a master wood engraver and illustrator trained under Bewick, brought a distinctive dramatic realism to literary classics. His engravings for Milton visualize the conflict of heaven and hell with a balance of movement, shadow, and divine geometry — among the finest examples of Victorian poetic illustration.