The Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe, with Original Memoir. London: Sampson Low, Son and Co., 1858. The first deluxe illustrated London edition, published just nine years after Poe's death. Illustrated throughout with fifty three engravings by F. R. Pickersgill, John Tenniel, Birket Foster, Felix O. C. Darley, Jasper Cropsey, Peter Paul Duggan, Percival Skelton and A. M. Madot, with decorative head and tail pieces by W. Harry Rogers, produced under the editorial superintendence of Joseph Cundall. Tenniel's contributions here predate his celebrated illustrations for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by seven years.
Bound in the deluxe presentation binding issued for this edition, generally attributed to the London bindery of W. Bone and Son of Fleet Street: full crushed morocco, elaborately gilt to a panelled spine with raised bands, gilt ruled borders to the boards, gilt dentelles, and all edges gilt.
Provenance: this copy carries the gilt armorial seal of the University of Sydney stamped to the upper board, together with a manuscript Latin presentation inscription recording its award, in 1863, to a student placed in the first class by the public examiners for distinguished progress in the mathematical sciences, signed by the University Registrar, a rare and evocative piece of colonial Australian academic history attached to an English literary deluxe edition.
Condition: boards bright with crisp gilt tooling and a well preserved gilt armorial device; spine gilt strong, joints and extremities sound. Some minor discolouring internally as shown, with light, even age toning typical of the period; illustrations bright and unspotted.
