THE MINOR POEMS OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.

Stated "New edition", but the first edition in this form. Handsome contemporary full tan calf by Hayday for Chapman and Hall. Boards ruled in gilt, the spine with five raised bands, compartments decorated in gilt and morocco title label lettered in gilt. Marbling to page edges. Marbled endpapers. Silk ribbon page marker. Full page pencil drawing of a historical bedchamber by the artist Sir Joseph Noel Paton, signed with a monogram and dated May 9th 1849, to the rear endpaper. Pencil ownership inscription of Paton to the front free endpaper. A very good copy, the binding square and firm with cracking to the front hinge, some scattered marking to the boards and a little rubbing to the extremities. The contents with the pencil ownership inscription and introductory note by the author William St Clair to the front free endpaper, the occasional pencil annotation, a little fraying to the silk page marker and a touch of toning to the page edges are otherwise in very good order and clean throughout.

An uncommon early one-volume edition of Shelley's poetry issued by the publisher Edward Moxon, who had previously produced the first official collected edition, edited by Mary Shelley and issued in four volumes, in 1839. The poems here include Alastor, Epipsychidion, Julian and Maddalo, The Masque of Anarchy, Adonais, The Sensitive Plant and The Triumph of Life, amongst many others. The present copy was owned, and contains an original pencil drawing by, the prominent Scottish artist and close associate of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Sir Joseph Noel Paton (1821-1901). Notably, in addition to famously illustrating Charles Kingsley's 'The Water-Babies' (1863), Paton also illustrated a deluxe edition of Shelley's 'Prometheus Unbound' in 1844. Provenance: from the library of William St Clair (1937-2021).