The Golden Treasury | 1878 | Francis Turner Palgrave | Full Vellum Fine Binding

The Golden Treasury of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language
Selected and Arranged with Notes by Francis Turner Palgrave
London: Macmillan and Co., 1878

A beautifully bound Victorian edition of Francis Turner Palgrave’s celebrated Golden Treasury, one of the most influential and enduring anthologies of English lyric poetry.

First published by Macmillan in 1861, The Golden Treasury was carefully assembled by Palgrave with the assistance and counsel of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Arranged in four chronological books, the anthology gathers some of the finest English lyric poetry from the Elizabethan period through the early nineteenth century, including works by William Shakespeare, John Milton, Robert Burns, William Wordsworth, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, and many others. Palgrave deliberately excluded living poets from the original collection, allowing the anthology to present what he considered an established canon of English lyrical verse.

This handsome 1878 edition is bound in full vellum, elegantly ruled in gilt to the boards and spine, with raised bands and a tan leather spine label lettered in gilt, “Palgrave’s Golden Treasury.” The binding is further distinguished by gilt decoration along the inner board edges, all page edges gilt, richly marbled endpapers, and a ribbon marker. The title page bears the characteristic engraved vignette associated with Macmillan’s Golden Treasury Series.

Condition: Near Fine. The binding remains tight and secure. The gilt edges remains attractive and interior is remarkably clean. 331 pages.

Size: 4 1/4” x 6 1/2”

A elegant nineteenth-century copy of a landmark anthology of English poetry, combining an important literary text with a beautifully executed fine binding.