BARNES, William (1801-1886) - photo 1
BARNES, William (1801-1886) - photo 2
BARNES, William (1801-1886) - photo 3

BARNES, William (1801-1886)

Lot 116
09.07.2025 10:30UTC +01:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1450490
Lot 116 | BARNES, William (1801-1886)
Estimate value
£ 6 000 – 8 000
BARNES, William (1801-1886)
Orra: A Lapland Tale… The Wood-Cuts engraved by the Author. Dorchester: printed by J. Criswick, High West-Street. 1822.
Very rare first edition of William Barnes’s second book of poems: we are able to trace just 4 other copies, at the British Library, Harvard, Chicago, and one said to be at the Dorset County Museum.

Lucy Baxter in her 1887 biography of Barnes admitted she had never been able to locate a copy, to which a contemporary reviewer added: ‘who among the living has ever seen Orra?’. The ambitious poetical tale of ‘true love blighted by parental opposition’ (Chedzoy), Orra took inspiration for its exotic setting from Giuseppe Acerbi’s account of his travels through Lapland in 1798-99. Issued two years after his first publication (Poetical Pieces, 1820), but still some 22 years before he would publish a collection of verse in the Dorset dialect with which he would become so closely associated, Orra is a ‘clear forecast of the craftsman and artist who was to write the later poems’ (Dugdale). The binder of the present copy, Charles Zillwood, was in business in High West St in Dorchester, presumably a few doors away from the publisher J. Criswick, while Barnes himself was in shared lodgings above a pastry shop in the same street. Author, printer and binder (and probable bookseller) were therefore just a few steps from each other.

Barnes’s later dialect poetry was to be a key influence on Thomas Hardy, with whom he began a friendship in 1856, when the young Hardy, then sixteen, worked next door to the school Barnes ran in Dorchester. Barnes, already an established poet and passionate advocate for preserving the Dorset dialect and rural culture, became a mentor to Hardy, discussing poetry with him and sharing stories of local folklore. Hardy attended Barnes’s funeral and wrote one of his finest elegies, ‘The Last Signal’, to commemorate his friend. Chedzoy, Alan. William Barnes: a life of the Dorset poet, 1985; Dugdale, Arthur Giles. William Barnes of Dorset, 1953; Hearl, Trevor William. William Barnes, 1801-1886, the schoolmaster, 1966.

5 works in one volume, octavo (199 x 118mm). Orra with the final advertisement leaf apparently lacking in the British Library copy and decorated with a number of small wood-engravings by Barnes himself (a few minor spots). Contemporary half calf over marbled boards, binder’s ticket of C. Zillwood, bookseller &c, Dorchester to front pastedown (rebacked preserving most of contemporary red morocco lettering piece). Provenance. John Sparrow (label on front endpaper; sold at Christie’s South Kensington, London, 18 December 1992, lot 58) – J.O. Edwards (book label on front pastedown).

[Bound with:] [OFFLEY, Julia Maria (1780-1853)] The Assize Ball: or, Lucy of the Moor. London: sold by J. Hatchard, Piccadilly; F. Westley, Stationers’ Court; and other booksellers, 1820.
[and:]
[BYRON, George Gordon, Lord (1788-1824).] English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. A Satire. Fourth edition. London: printed for James Cawthorne, British Library, no. 24, Cockspur Street, 1810.
[and:]
[BURGES, George (1786-1864)]. Cato to Lord Byron on the Immorality of his Writings. London: printed for W. Wetton, 21, Fleet Street, 1824.
[and:]
HAYNES, James. Conscience; or, the Bridal Night: a Tragedy, in Five Acts. London: printed for Hurst, Robinson and co. Cheapside; and Archibald Constable and co Edinburgh, 1821. With errata slip.
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