The Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate.>>Riviere and son [Bookbinders] UNIQUE ARTS & CRAFTS VELLUM BINDING<< Alfred Lord Tennyson. Publication Date: 1905 Condition: Very Good

Title: The Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Poet ...

Publisher: Macmillan.

Publication Date: 1905

Binding: Hardcover

Book Condition: Very Good

viii, 900, [2, index and colophon] printed pages. Inner gilt fillets signed in gilt "Bound by Riviere and Son". Original gilt-stamped maroon morocco label reading, "J.E.Cornish, Bookseller, 16 St. Anne's Square, Manchester". All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. Later (1945) ink gift inscription on blank preliminary leaf. 13 x 19 cm. Unique contemporary full vellum binding by Riviere in the Arts & Crafts style. Spine with gilt lettering and two panels with a stylised tree in gilt. Upper cover with gilt book resting on cloistered wall with romanesque arches, barley-twist columns, a bay tree in a fluted tub and the branches & leaves from the tree on the spine spilling over. Some of the gilt design is slightly rubbed, but it is in very good+ condition overall. This example of fine binding was completed post-1881, because in 1881, the binding business was renamed Riviere and Son to incorporate the credentials of Percy Calkin, Riviere's grandson, as partner. But it was bound pre-1939, when the Bayntun and Rivière binderies were incorporated into a new set of premises on Manvers Street in Bath, from where the business still operates today. It was in all probability bound c.1905 judging by it's unique & distictive arts & crafts stylisation. Tennyson was made Poet Laureate in succession to Wordsworth in 1850. He was held in the highest regard by Victoria and Albert. All of his great works are included here, including the "Idylls" and the "Charge of the Light Brigade". Tennyson was the first to be raised to a British peerage for his writing. He is still today one of the most popular British poets. In writing Tennyson used a wide range of subject matter, ranging from medieval legends to classical myths and from domestic situations to observations of nature, as source material for his poetry. The 'Idylls' for instance and the related poems were based on the Arthurian legends, and retell the story of King Arthur, his knights, his love for Guinevere and her tragic betrayal of him in blank verse. The dramatic narratives are not an epic either in structure or tone, but derive elegiac sadness in the style of the idylls of Theocritus. 'Idylls of the King' is often read as an allegory of the societal conflicts in Britain during the mid-Victorian era. Presents beautifully. Bookseller Inventory # 5046