Apr 07, 2011 - Sale 2242

Sale 2242 - Lot 26

Price Realized: $ 16,800
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
ALL SIXTEEN CANTOS OF BYRON'S MASTERPIECE BYRON, GEORGE GORDON NOEL, LORD. Don Juan. 16 Cantos (complete) in 7 volumes. Volume 1 (Cantos I-II) quarto; remaining volumes (including the reissue of Cantos I-II) are 8vo, publisher's original paper boards and spine labels, spine of 4to volume expertly repaired, retaining the label, scattered normal wear, but better than normally encountered, foxing to first two volumes; half-titles in Volumes I-III; errata slip in Volume VI; advertisements in III, IV, and VI; bookplate and contemporary prospectus for John Britton's "Cathedral Antiquities" tipped to Volume I; all laid into custom 1/4 morocco folding box with spine label, extremities scuffed. London: Thomas Davison, 1819-21 (Cantos I-V); John Hunt, 1823-24 (VI-XVI)
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Additional Details

complete set in original boards of one of the classics of the Romantic period. It is Byron's final masterpiece, begun in 1819 and left unfinished at the time of his death in 1824. Davison printed the first volume in quarto size, but was disappointed in sales, so abandoned the project to John Hunt, who issued the remaining volumes in octavo, including a reissue of the first Cantos to match the others. The set bears the ownership book label of Edward Whittaker Hennell, an active collector of Byron material, most of which now resides in the Lilly Library. It is uncommon to find complete sets in original boards. MPP 270; Randolph, 69-92; Ashley Library I, 157.