DRAMATIC WORKS

(BINDINGS - FINELY BOUND SETS). KNOWLES, JAMES SHERIDAN

Published by Edward Moxon 1841-43, London, 1841

About this Item

198 x 121 mm. (7 7/8 x 4 3/4"). Three volumes. EXTREMELY PRETTY 19TH CENTURY TAN POLISHED CALF, GILT, BY HOPKINS OF GLASGOW (stamp-signed on front pastedowns), covers with French fillet borders, raised bands, spine gilt in compartments with central fleuron surrounded by a lozenge of small tools, scrolling cornerpieces, one red and one green morocco label, top edges gilt. With engraved frontispiece portrait in volume I. Front pastedowns with engraved bookplate of George G. Stevenson; front free endpapers with bookplate of Allan D. MacDonald. Covers with a few minor scuffs, but A VERY FINE SET, the bindings especially lustrous, the text with only negligible imperfections, and the whole with next to no signs of use. First published in 1838, this is a collection of plays by the Irish dramatist (and cousin of Richard Brinsley Sheridan) James Sheridan Knowles, bound by a workshop in his adopted city of Glasgow. Knowles (1784-1862) had quite a varied career: after studying medicine at the University of Aberdeen and working as resident vaccinator to the Jennerian Society, he became an actor, but found--as have so many--that it would not pay his bills. To supplement his income, he operated schools in Belfast and later in Glasgow, devoting his free time to writing plays. Minor successes in the provinces eventually resulted in London productions, where his efforts received favorable reviews from such literary lights as Charles Lamb and William Hazlitt. In 1825 Knowles was declared by "The Spirit of the Age" to be "the finest writer of his time." Knowles enjoyed success into the 1830s, but by the next decade. his star had begun to fade, and in 1843, to the shock of his theatrical associates, he embraced his fifth career as a Baptist preacher. Our attractively bound, glistening set makes a very pleasing appearance on the shelf.

Seller Inventory # ST17890d

Bibliographic Details

• Title: DRAMATIC WORKS
• Publisher: Edward Moxon 1841-43, London
• Publication Date: 1841
• Seller catalogs:
  • Theater and Performing Arts
  • Bindings - 19th century
  • Bindings - Sets