"BEAUTY, STRENGTH, YOUTH, ARE FLOWERS BUT FADING SEEN; DUTY, FAITH, LOVE, ARE ROOTS, AND EVER GREEN"

PEELE, George. The Works of George Peele. Edited by A.H. Bullen. London: John C. Nimmo (Ballantyne Press), 1888. Two volumes. Octavo, early 20th-century full maroon crushed morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt. $1100.

Limited Ballantyne Press edition of Peele, one of only 750 sets, very handsomely bound by the Club Bindery (dated 1909).

First collected in 1828, Peele's Works are predominantly dramatic, revealing his "pregnant dexterity of wit and manifold variety of invention" (Nashe). "Peele had his share, with other University Wits, in transforming the crude popular drama of the London stage into literary drama. His great contribution lay in his poetic diction" (Charles Baskervill). This copy was bound at the Club Bindery, "the finest hand bindery ever to operate in America," established in New York by a group of American book-collectors, who "employed as their chief finishers the Frenchmen Henri Hardy (a former apprentice to the great 19th-century binder Charles Meunier), and Léon Maillard, thought by some to have been the premier finisher of his time" (Thomas G. Boss). Bookplates.

A handsomely bound set in fine condition.