THE IRIS OF PROSE, POETRY AND ART FOR 1840, WITH 12 LOVELY ENGRAVED PLATES, BEAUTIFULLY BOUND

(FINDEN, William and FINDEN, Edward Francis) MITFORD, Mary Russell, editor. Findens’ Tableaux. The Iris of Prose, Poetry and Art, for MDCCCXL. London: Charles Tilt, 1840. Folio, contemporary navy pebbled morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated covers and spine, all edges gilt. Housed in custom felt-lined cloth clamshell box. $985.

First edition of this early Victorian gift album, compiled by Mary Russell Mitford and including a contribution by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, with additional engraved title page and 12 lovely engraved plates, very handsomely bound.

Mary Russell Mitford managed to include six of her own works, along with Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Legend of the Brown Rosarie” and five others. Browning’s heroines charmed a large and diverse company of Victorian admirers, including Mitford. The Finden brothers were accomplished engravers and “large contributors of illustrations to the annuals, books of beauty, poetry, and other sentimental works then in vogue” (DNB). They were best known as “specialists in small-scale book illustration… much in demand for minutely detailed plates” (Grove Dictionary of Art). Bookplate.

A splendid volume in fine condition.