Animal Farm

London: Bell & Daldy, 1867. First Thus. 8vo (7" x 5¼"). pp. 186. Part of Bell & Daldy's Imperial Gift Book Series (1)

Imitation malachite papier mâché boards joined by a spine of green crushed ribbed morocco spine; the front board with the title in gothic script with a filigree motif above and below it, and bordered with a filigree frame. Spine with titles in identical gothic script as the front board with filigree motifs and borders at the head and tail of the spine; white coated diagonal fine rib grain moiré eps; a.e.g.

Includes black and white engraved frontis. and 38 headpieces, tailpieces and vignette illustrations by Birket Foster, John Absolon, James Godwin and Harrison Weir.

A collection of Goldsmith's most important poetry including his most famous poems, The Deserted Village (1770), a condemnation of rural depopulation and the general pursuit of huge wealth without thought to happiness or the displacement of communities, and The Traveler (1764), a philosophic poem discussing the causes of happiness and unhappiness in nations.

Besides cloth and leather, other materials were used for publisher's bindings in the Victorian age, including imitation malachite (2) and tortoiseshell (3), classified by McLean as papier mâché. According to contemporary advertising for the present book, members of Bell and Daldy's Imperial Imperial Gift Book Series were "handsomely bound in malachite binding" (4), indicating that Bell and Daldy were willing to push the sale of the Imperial Gift Book Series by fraudulently claiming that the binding was actual malachite.

According to Chick, the process for making imitation malachite and imitation tortoiseshell, was a process called "scrumbling", wherein a wet coat of paint is manipulated to expose, partially or completely, a dry undercoat of a different colour (5).

A lovely, near fine copy with faint wear to the head and tail of the spine with a clean, crisp interior; the armorial bookplate of Alex. Ralli on the front paste-down; prize-plate dated 1874 on the ffep; an exceptionally scarce example of a Victorian gift book malachite papier mâché binding.

1. Bell and Daldy. Catalogue of Books (back matter) in Hazlett, William. Plain Speaker: Opinions on Books, Men and Things. London: Bell and Daldy, 1870. p. 9.

2. Mclean, Ruari. Victorian Publisher's Book-Bindings in Cloth and Leather. (1973). Berkeley: University of California Press, p. 106 (The image is of The White Doe of Rylstone, another member of the Bell and Daldy Imperial Gift Book Series).

3. Ibid, p.109.

4. Op. cit. Bell and Daldy Catalogue of Books, p. 9

5. Chick, Arthur. Scrumbled Malachite and Tortoiseshell Boards. Antiquarian Book Monthly Review, Volume 15, Issue 164 - Volume 16, Issue 188 p.150