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1922 Scarce Bayntun First Limited Edition - Sonnets From the Portuguese, love sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning illustrated by Louise Gaston.

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Original price $300 USD - Original price $300 USD
Original price
$300 USD
$300 USD - $300 USD
Current price $300 USD

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(Description)


Author: Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Louise Gaston, illustrator.
Title: Sonnets From the Portuguese. Illustrated by Louise Gaston.
Publisher: Bath, George Bayntun, 1922. First Limited Edition, one of 1000 copies on hand-made paper, illustrated by Louise Gaston. Printed by Harding and Curtis, Bath. 
Language: Text in English.
Size: 8 " X 5.5 ".
Pages: 44 pages. 
Binding: Attractive and near fine brown half-calf leather binding over decorative marbled paper covers (hinges fine, overall slightly scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. Upper edge gilt.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean, some light foxing mainly on the preliminary and last pages - as shown).
Illustrations: Complete with the frontispiece and the twelve beautiful full-page illustrations by Louise Gaston.

Estimate: (Scarce with few other copies available for sale worldwide). 

The book
: Beautiful limited edition illustrated by Louise Gaston of the Sonnets from the Portuguese, written ca. 1845–1846 and published first in 1850, -- a collection of 44 love sonnets written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The collection was acclaimed and popular during the poet's lifetime and it remains so. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was initially hesitant to publish the poems, believing they were too personal. However, her husband Robert Browning insisted they were the best sequence of English-language sonnets since Shakespeare's time and urged her to publish them. To offer the couple some privacy, she decided to publish them as if they were translations of foreign sonnets. She initially planned to title the collection "Sonnets translated from the Bosnian", but Browning proposed that she claim their source was Portuguese, probably because of her admiration for Camões and Robert's nickname for her: "my little Portuguese". The title is also a reference to Les Lettres Portugaises (1669).


The author: Elizabeth Barrett Browning (née Moulton-Barrett; 6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861) was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime.

The illustrator: Louise Gaston was an American illustrator who lived and worked in the early 20th century. She was born in 1878 in New York City, and attended the Art Students League of New York where she studied under William Merritt Chase and Frank Vincent DuMond. Gaston became well known for her illustrations in magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair, and Vogue. Her work often featured fashionable women in elegant settings, and she was skilled at capturing the glamour and sophistication of the era. She also illustrated children's books, including "The Story of the First Christmas Tree" by Henry van Dyke. In addition to her illustrations, Gaston was also an accomplished painter and exhibited her work at the National Academy of Design in New York. She was a member of the Society of Illustrators and served as the organization's first female president from 1933-1934. Gaston continued to work as an illustrator and artist throughout her life, and passed away in 1964 at the age of 86. Her work continues to be admired for its beauty and skill, and she is remembered as an important figure in the history of American illustration.