London: Reeves & Turner, 1886. Second edition. Two octavo volumes (7 1/4 x 4 11/16 inches; 184 x 119 mm.), 572; 580 pp. A spectacular ca. 1920 Cosway-Style binding by Sangorski & Sutcliffe for the J.L. Hudson Company (stamp-signed in gilt on rear turn-in). Full red crushed levant morocco over beveled boards, covers lavishly gilt in the Art Nouveau style, with inlaid green and light brown morocco inlays. The first volume with a central green morocco medallion with Percy Bysshe Shelley's initials in gilt. The second volume with a central green morocco medallion with the phrase "Pansies/Let My Flowers Be" stamped in gilt. Spines with five raised bands elaborately decorated and lettered in gilt in compartments, four of which have onlaid green morocco flowers. Double gilt-ruled board edges and elaborate gilt turn-ins, dark blue watered silk liners and endleaves, all edges gilt and gauffered. The first volume with a front doublure of dark blue crushed levant morocco, multi-ruled in gilt. In the center is a superb gilt framed, hand-painted portrait miniature (3 x 2 3/8 inches; 76 x 60 mm.) of Percy Bysshe Shelley. The miniature is surrounded by a rectangular recessed frame with eight onlaid red morocco flowers and twenty-four onlaid beige morocco leaves. The front and back joints of both volumes have been expertly and almost invisibly repaired. Housed in a custom-made, felt lined half red morocco (with a red felt divider) clamshell case, two spines paneled and lettered in gilt in compartments.

A wonderful early Sangorski & Sutcliffe Cosway-style binding. The miniature is of exceptional quality and is quite possibly the work of Miss C.B. Currie. The J. L. Hudson Company (commonly known simply as Hudson's) was a retail department store chain based in Detroit, Michigan. Hudson's flagship store, on Woodward Avenue in Downtown Detroit was constructed beginning in 1911, with additions throughout the years, before being 'completed' in 1946. The building was named after the company's founder Joseph Lowthian Hudson, and was demolished on October 24, 1998. In 1961 it was the tallest department store in the world, and, at one time, claimed to be the second-largest department store, after Macy's, in the United States, by square footage. The Grand River Avenue Book Shop was on the Mezzanine floor.

The story of the Sangorski & Sutcliffe Bindery reads like something out of a novel—when two of Douglas Cockrell’s talented apprentices, Frances Sangorski and George Sutcliffe, were laid off during an economic downturn they began working out of an attic. Eventually their bindery would be famous for its intricate multicolored leather inlays and elaborate gold and jeweled bindings. Although named after the English miniaturist Richard Cosway (1742-1821), the desirable “Cosway Binding” with its jewel-like portrait miniature set into a fine binding was first developed at the turn of the century by J.H. Stonehouse, director of London’s Henry Sotheran Booksellers. Their miniatures were painstakingly crafted by the talented painter Miss C. B. Currie (1849-1940). As the style grew in popularity, other publishing houses quickly began to reproduce this technique—each developing their own desirable take on the aesthetic—referred to as “Cosway style.” Fine (Item #6240)