City Ballads — Will Carleton, Harper & Brothers 1885, Illustrated — Decorative
$ 7.92
Description
City Ballads — Will Carleton, Harper & Brothers 1885, Illustrated — Decorative . The cover alone is worth stopping for. The spine carries gilt lettering in a matching decorative style. Published in 1885 by Harper & Brothers of Franklin Square, New York, this is a handsome first-edition-year copy of Will Carleton's City Ballads — the follow-up collection from one of the most widely read American poets of the Gilded Age. Carleton's Farm Ballads had made him a household name in the 1870s, and Harper, the most prestigious American publisher of the era, brought out his city counterpart in fine style. The cover alone is worth stopping for. Deep olive-green cloth with a dramatic gold-stamped design: a domed city skyline with radiating sunbursts behind the spires, framed by ornate corner scrollwork. It's the kind of Victorian cover design that was meant to sit on a parlor table and invite comment, and it still does. The spine carries gilt lettering in a matching decorative style. Inside, the book is illustrated throughout with period engravings, including a striking full-page frontispiece. The pages are clean and bright with no significant foxing noted. The binding is sound with boards firmly attached. Condition is Good. The spine shows some fraying at the top cap, consistent with 140 years of shelf life and visible in the photos — priced accordingly. The cover boards and interior present well. A solid piece for a collector of American Victorian poetry, Gilded Age literature, or Harper & Brothers imprints — or simply for anyone who appreciates a genuinely beautiful nineteenth-century book.
