1880 Rare Victorian Book - POEMS by THOMAS HOOD with Illustrations by William Small.
(description)
Author: Thomas Hood. (William Small, illustrator).
Title: POEMS by Thomas Hood with Illustrations.
Publisher: London, George Routledge and Sons, no date (circa 1880).
Language: Text in English.
Size: 7.5 "X 5.5 " .
Pages: viii-478 pages.
Binding: Attractive and very good, near fine Victorian decorated full cloth binding (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. All edges gilt. A rare find in such a great condition and beautiful binding!
Content: Very good content (bright, tight, and clean, light foxing and staining mainly on preliminary pages - as shown, name of a previous 1880 owner on the second blank - as shown).
Illustrations: Complete with the frontispiece and 5 nice full-page illustrations by William Small.
The book: Beautiful 19th century illustrated edition of Thomas Hood's Poems.
The author: Thomas Hood (23 May 1799 – 3 May 1845) was an English poet, author and humorist, best known for poems such as "The Bridge of Sighs" and "The Song of the Shirt". Hood wrote regularly for The London Magazine, Athenaeum, and Punch. He later published a magazine largely consisting of his own works. Hood, never robust, had lapsed into invalidism by the age of 41 and died at the age of 45. William Michael Rossetti in 1903 called him "the finest English poet" between the generations of Shelley and Tennyson. Hood was the father of the playwright and humorist Tom Hood (1835–1874) and the children's writer Frances Freeling Broderip (1830–1878).
The illustrator: William Small (1843-1929) was a British painter and illustrator of Scottish origin. Born in Edinburgh, on 27 May 1843, he later worked in that city as hack-artist designing illustrations of bedsteads and gas brackets. He trained at the Royal Scottish Academy and moved to London in 1865, where he quickly established himself as a versatile painter and illustrator. In his paintings, he was mainly concerned with rustic themes, and some of his later work embodies a journalistic representation of the sufferings of the poor. Painted in the social realist style of Herkomer and Bastien-Lepage, these paintings are still collected. However, he has always been principally known as an illustrator whose work bore comparison with the best of his contemporaries.