Reliques of Ancient English Poetry; Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs, and Other Pieces of Our Earlier Poets, Together with Some Few of Later Date by Percy, Thomas (Author of "Advertisement to the Fourth Edition"); [Various Authors] - 1846

London: Edward Moxon, 1846. Leather bound. Near fine. Three volumes (complete), twenty-fourmo size, 1005 total pp. The ancient poetry of England continues to hold a fascination and influence over contemporary poets, with the old ballads and songs still being read and studied. This three-volume set comprises a thorough selection of poems from the old English tradition, with ballads featuring well-known characters such as Robin Hood, King Arthur, and Sir Gawain, as well as poetry written by prominent Elizabethan writers such as Christopher Marlowe and Sir Walter Raleigh. The poetry is annotated with notes and a scholarly essay precedes the poems in Volume I, making this set a historical and academic look at some of the most beautiful lyrics in the English language.

This set is bound in contemporary leather which has remained smooth and supple, with elegant gilt designs, in unusually nice condiiton.

___DESCRIPTION: Full brown leather, gilt ruled borders around the edges of both boards, five raised bands on the spine with gilt decorative and ruled borders, brown and black leather spine labels with gilt lettering, decorative gilt borders along the fore-, bottom, and top edges of the boards, all edges marbled, marbled endpapers in brown, red, and black; twenty-fourmo size (5.5" by 3.5"), pagination: Volume I: [i-v] vi-ci [cii-cv] [1] 2-283; Volume II: [i-v] vi-viii [1] 2-303; Volume III: [i-v] vi-vii [viii] [1] 2-298. Elegant inscription in a vintage hand in two different colours, black and brown, the brown ink "Florence P. P. Beasley / from/ her affectionate brother / E. C. Beasley / 28th May 1872", the black ink "Charles Edward [illegible] / Beasley in loving memory / of his dear mother CB" in all three volumes, both inscriptions on the verso of the front free endpaper in each volume; additionally, the inscriptions are dated 1907 in Volumes II and III.

___CONDITION: Volumes are near fine, with clean boards, strong, square text blocks with solid hinges, the interiors are clean and bright, and the only prior owner markings we see are the inscriptions mentioned above; some very light rubbing to the corners on each volume, all corners gently bumped, and very minor foxing to a few pages in each volume, but overall a lovely set.

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