ID 1129739
Lot 121 | Colins Clouts Come home againe
Estimate value
$ 12 000 – 18 000
The Perkins-Williams-Benz copy of the first edition of the "greatest pastoral eclogue in the English language" (Fowler). Spenser’s most autobiographical poem, it concerns his journey with Sir Walter Raleigh from County Cork to London, where he saw the first three books of The Faerie Queene (1590) through the press and had the opportunity to present his poem directly to Queen Elizabeth. This is the issue with “worthylie” on C1r. In 1929, the present copy achieved $7,000 in the John Camp Williams auction, where it was described as “magnificent” and “about as fine a copy as can be obtained.” Johnson 16; Pforzheimer 967; STC 23077.
Quarto (185 x 139mm). Woodcut device on title within type-ornament border, woodcut and typographic head- and tailpieces (a few ink spots and marginal stains, minor repairs to a few blank corners, washed and pressed). 19th-century red morocco paneled in gilt enclosing gilt unicorn’s head from the Perkins crest, spine gilt, all edges gilt (spine ends trivially rubbed). Provenance: occasional very faint early annotations – Hugh Perkins, Fulwood Park, Liverpool, 1818-1898 (bookplate, sale at Sotheby’s, London, 29-31 March 1916, lot 801) – John Camp Williams, 1859-1929 (leather book label, his sale at Anderson Galleries, New York, 6-8 November 1929, lot 1074) – James F. Drake, bookseller – Doris Louise Benz, 1907-1984 (leather book label, her sale, Christie’s New York, 16 November 1984, lot 357).
| Artist: | Edmund Spenser (1552 - 1599) |
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| Artist: | Edmund Spenser (1552 - 1599) |
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| Address of auction |
CHRISTIE'S 20 Rockefeller Plaza 10020 New York USA | ||||||||||||||
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