The Poetical Works of the Rev. R. Montgomery A.M. Oxon. Volumes I & II: Satan; Woman BOTH VOLUMES FORE-EDGE PAINTED
18402307812London: Ball Arnold & Co 1840. Small Hard Cover. Very Good/No Jacket. New edition revised seventh edition and fourth edition respectively. Both volumes feature idyllic fore-edge paintings: the first of a woman and a boy holding hands as they walk a road with large trees on either side in the foreground and copses of trees in the distance; the second depicts two figures rowing a canoe down a stream with a village in the distance. Each appears to be by the same artist. Corners a bit rubbed with evidence of minor restoration to spine head and foot ink name on front endpaper of each volume. 1840 Small Hard Cover. xi 171; 208 12 pp. 12mo. Volumes one and two of what was ultimately a six-volume set of Montgomery's collected poems. The presence of fore-edge paintings on these volumes is somewhat unusual as traditionally this was done on leather-bound volumes often quite a bit larger than these and the practice in general was considerably more common in the 18th century and earlier. That being said these are ably done so it is clear that they are not the work of an amateur and it is possible someone commissioned a contemporary artist to do the entire set and these are the volumes that remain. His poetry while it sold well during his lifetime is remembered best as the victim of excoriating reviews by John Wilson in Blackwood's and Thomas Babington Macaulay in the Edinburgh Review. Ball, Arnold, & Co hardcover books
