Poems of Robert Burns, 1787 - photo 1
Poems of Robert Burns, 1787 - photo 2
Poems of Robert Burns, 1787 - photo 3
Poems of Robert Burns, 1787 - photo 4

Poems of Robert Burns, 1787

Lot 55
06.10.2022 12:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 47 880
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 813761
Lot 55 | Poems of Robert Burns, 1787
Estimate value
$ 15 000 – 25 000
Poems of Robert Burns, 1787

Sangorski & Sutcliffe jeweled binding

SANGORSKI, Francis (1875-1912) and SUTCLIFFE, George (1878-1943) binders. BURNS, Robert (1759-96). Poems chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. Edinburgh: William Creech, 1787.



"Gin a body meet a body, comin thro' the rye,

Gin a body kiss a body, need a body cry..."



A superb jeweled binding set with 37 jewels, including cairngorms, the gemstone of Scotland. In very fine condition and with the original binders’ description preserved, signed by George Sutcliffe. The binders' description reads in part: "The motive for the various decorations of the binding has been suggested by some of the best known lines of Scotland's premier poet. 'Comin thro' the Rye' is the theme of both front & back covers. A full ripe harvest is suggested sprinkled with bright scarlet poppies. The colour scheme is mellow in tone, an effect which is furthered by topazes which are inserted into the borders ... All the stones are genuine as described, each in a gold setting inserted beneath the leather and all the designs used in the decoration have been specially prepared for this volume and will not be duplicated." The description has brown hand-lettered covers (now loose) and is laid into the original box. Of all the Sangorski & Sutcliffe jeweled bindings examined by Stephen Ratcliffe for his monograph “Hidden Treasures: Jeweled Bookbindings and Illuminated Manuscripts in England 1900-1939,” only this one had the binders’ prospectus preserved. The jewels include 20 topazes, 8 amethysts, 4 turquoises and 4 cairngorms. The latter is a type of smoky quartz found only in the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland. Second (first Edinburgh) edition of Burns’s poems. Rothschild 556.



Octavo (204 x 125 mm). Half-title. Engraved portrait after A. Nasmyth. Full crushed green morocco jeweled binding by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, jeweled morocco doublures, morocco gilt flyleaves, all edges gilt. Both covers with large central panels of elaborately gold-tooled sheafs of rye and inlaid red poppies, outer borders with lines from "Comin' through the Rye," and with 10 topazes on inlaid border in two shades of brown morocco and fine gilt pointillé. Spine gilt in six compartments with raised bands, morocco lettering-piece in one, a repeated panel continuing the design of the covers in the remaining, board edges with double gilt rule. Upper doublure of brown morocco featuring a central recessed arabesque panel of fine gilt pointillé below onlays of tan, green red and purple and daisies and foliage, each flower with a turquoise set at center and with 4 cairngorms at edges; the panel gold-tooled with thistles and other stamps, the turn-ins with lines from "To Best-laid Schemes of Mice and Men" in gold and inlaid morocco cornerpieces; front morocco flyleaf with lines from "Auld Lang Syne" in gold and underscored in blind, and gilt and inlaid leafy border. The lower doublure in symmetrical style but with small green onlays incorporating into the gilt-stamping and the central sunken panel pictures a thistle in green morocco onlay, the flowers represented by 8 amethysts, the text on the turn-ins is from "Green Grow the Rushes;" rear morocco flyleaf also symmetrical but with lines from “John Anderson, My Jo,” on citron morocco border inlaid with red hearts (small stain to lower doublure). Stamp-signed by Sangorski & Sutcliffe on the upper doublure. Full straight-grained morocco box lined in silk and velvet, metal catch. Provenance: Cornelius J. Hauck, 1893-1967 (Cincinnati Museum Center sale, Christie’s New York, 27-28 June 2006, lot 657).

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