Paradis

2 vols., 12mo., with fine engraved and printed titles, and a total of 8 engraved plates after Westall (most original tissue guards present), some minimal offsetting from plates; ORIGINAL BOARDS, very neatly rebacked to style, ORIGINAL PRINTED PAPER LABELS PRESERVED (labels chipped and worn but virtually all lettering entirely legible), uncut, boards mildly age-stained with a few old tape marks, else a most attractive and remarkably clean, crisp set in tastefully restored publisher's binding. The engraved titles, all after Westall and dated 1816, are by Engleheart (Vol. I: Paradise Regained) and Rhodes (Vol. II: Minor Poems). The fine engraved and captioned plates are also after Westall and dated 1816. In the first volume, the plates stand before Paradise Lost (Finden), Samson Agonistes (Romney) and Comus (Heath); in the second, the plates stand before Lycidas (Engleheart), L'Allegro (Heath), Il Penseroso (Mitan), Sonnets (Heath) and Odes (Finden).In the first volume Paradise Regained is paginated by line number only; the other works (including Arcades) are all separately paginated. In the second volume the pagination is continuous (including the Index).Something of a bibliographical puzzle here. The two volumes were clearly published as a set (vide the publisher's labels) but we can find no clear record of them as such. Volume I appears to be unrecorded by Stevens, falling as it does between Sharpe's first edition of 1809 and his quite distinct two-volume edition of 1827. Volume II would appear to be a later issue of Stevens 264 (who records the first edition thus as 1817 despite the dating on the engraved title). He makes the point that Vol. II was 'bound with his Paradise Regained, 1817' but lists no printings in 1819. These complexities notwithstanding, a scarce and delightful pair in well-nigh original period binding.