1890 Scarce Gift Edition - Sea-Fairies and Other Poems by Alfred Tennyson
An unusually attractive late-19th-century gift edition of Tennyson’s sea and fantasy poems, presented in its scarce original suede binding with mounted cover illustration and richly decorated interior.
Author: Alfred Tennyson.
Title: Sea-Fairies and Other Poems.
Publisher: New York and Boston, H. M. Caldwell Co., [c. 1890].
Edition: Scarce late-19th-century illustrated gift edition. Copyright 1890 by Estes and Lauriat.
Language: Text in English.
Pages: Unpaginated, approximately 48 pages.
Size: 9 x 7 inches.
Binding: Very good original limp suede binding with yapp edges, the covers shaded in soft green and tan. Front cover lettered in gilt Sea Fairies and Other Poems, with elaborate blind-stamped ornamental decoration surrounding a mounted pictorial panel within a gilt decorative frame. Top edge gilt and original green silk ribbon marker present. The suede remains supple and attractive, with expected light rubbing and mellowing at the edges and a few light scuffs to the mounted cover illustration, as shown. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good. Clean, well-preserved interior with strong hinges and attractive patterned endpapers. A contemporary presentation inscription appears on the front blank, “For Adolph & Elsie with ‘A Happy New Year,’” as shown.
Illustrations: Illustrated throughout with approximately 16 black-and-white plates and illustrations, including a frontispiece, full-page compositions and finely detailed decorative headings and vignettes accompanying the poems.
Estimate: USD 200–250.
The book: This charming gift edition brings together six poems by Alfred Tennyson: “The Sea-Fairies,” “The Mermaid,” “Recollections of the Arabian Nights,” “The Dying Swan,” “Nothing Will Die,” and “Mariana in the South.” Their subjects move between enchanted seas, mermaids, distant Eastern landscapes and the richly atmospheric melancholy that became one of Tennyson’s signatures.
Its appeal lies as much in the object as in the text. Produced during the great late-Victorian fashion for finely decorated gift books, the volume combines suede, gilt, a mounted cover image, patterned endpapers and extensive illustration to create an unusually evocative presentation of Tennyson’s early imaginative poetry. Surviving examples in the original suede binding are considerably less common than the publisher’s conventional cloth issues.
The author: Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) was one of the defining poets of Victorian Britain and served as Poet Laureate for more than forty years. His poetry ranges from the Arthurian cycle of Idylls of the King to intensely lyrical works such as “The Lady of Shalott,” “Mariana,” “The Lotos-Eaters” and In Memoriam A.H.H.
The poems gathered here belong largely to the richly pictorial, musical side of Tennyson’s art. Mermaids, sea spirits, distant palaces and dreamlike landscapes allowed him to combine narrative with mood, sound and visual imagery, qualities especially well suited to the elaborate illustrated gift-book format of this edition.