THE WORKS OF LORD BYRON. Complete in One Volume. With Notes by Thomas Moore, Lord Jeffrey, Sir Walter Scott, Samuel Rogers, J.G. Lockhart et al.
(London: Black and Armstrong, 1837).
FIRST COMPLETE EDITION IN ONE VOLUME, WITH ILLUSTRATION. A very handsome production of Byron’s great Romantic poetry and the first edition of his works in one volume. John Murray and Armstrong had a particular interest in Byron, with Murray largely responsible for publishing and promoting the author, as this fine one volume collection printed by both attests. If not for Murray’s efforts, it may have taken Byron works years, if ever, to reach the same height of popularity and fame.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan was an English Whig politician. He was born in London, the eldest son of Thomas Sheridan, colonial treasurer in the Cape of Good Hope, and the novelist Caroline Henrietta Callander of Craig forth and the grandson of his namesake, the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
He served as High Sheriff of Dorset in 1838, was Member of Parliament (MP) for Shaftesbury from 1845 to 1852 and for Dorchester from 1852 until he retired in 1868 and also Deputy Lieutenant for Dorset. He was a Liberal in favour of extending the right to vote. Item #34931
A very early printing of Byron’s works and the first to be complete in one volume. This copy with the fine bookplate of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. With an engraved portrait frontispiece by Finden, a beautiful engraved half-title with vignette, engraved publisher’s dedication and 4 pages of handwriting facsimiles. Large, thick 8vo, in a very handsome contemporary binding of full black straight-grain morocco, the spine with raised bands and compartments triple gilt-ruled in gilt and gilt lettered in one compartment and dated at the foot, with triple-gilt ruled fillet borders on both covers, fine gilt rolled turn-ins and all edges gilt. viii, [4], 827, 1 ads. A very handsome copy, beautifully preserved, the morocco and gilt both rich and bright, a copy with very little evidence of age or use.