Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$512.79 + shipping
Description: 8vo, orig. leather raised bands, most of label missing, prelims (unpaginated incl. Baskerville preface and subscriber list) + 416 pp. An attractive all leather edition of the rare Baskerville printing of Milton printed on laid paper. Size: 8vo
Seller: Appleford Bookroom, Abingdon, OXON, United Kingdom
Price: US$900.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: 2 volumes recently rebound, quarter leather over marbleized boards, sides stained yellow. Faint waterstain no more than 1/4" deep top margin for a few signatures in Lost, otherwise internals quite bright and nice.
Seller: Johnnycake Books ABAA, ILAB, Salisbury, CT, U.S.A.
Price: US$961.49 + shipping
Description: Two volumes, 8vo. The "Life of Milton" bound in "Paradise Lost" instead of "Regain'd" as called for, marbled endpapers, armorial bookplates of Henry Ralph Willett. Contemporary calf, a.e.g., gilt tooled borders, corners a little worn, rebacked retaining the original red and black morocco labels. Gaskell 4a & 5a.
Seller: Bow Windows Bookshop (ABA, ILAB), Lewes, United Kingdom
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo, Two volumes. In Very Good minus condition. Bound in half contemporary leather and marbled paper boards with gilt lettering on paneled spine. Cracking to leather on spines. Rubbing to boards and leather on corners. Small chunk of head of spine and braided headband missing from Volume I. Bookplate to front pastedown in both volumes. Age toning and light, scattered foxing throughout interior pages. Bookplates of J.E.H. Graham-Clarke on front pastedowns, and signature of Arabella Graham-Clarke on title page of both volumes. Handwritten notes from Arabella Graham-Clarke present between pages 2-43 in Volume I. Shelved in Case 13. Arabella Graham-Clarke was the aunt of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, a well-known English poet of the Victorian era. Originally issued in one volume, this copy was bound in two volumes to make space for interleaving. All volumes paginated continuously as issued, with the addition of one blank leaf per printed leaf for note-taking. Wickenheiser 691. 1373988. Shelved Dupont Bookstore.
Seller: Second Story Books, ABAA, Rockville, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Description: Two vols., uniform 8vos, [xxxii] 416pp & lxix, 390pp; contemporary calf, rebacked with elaborately gilt-tooled spines. The first Baskerville books in English (preceded by Virgil in Latin), with all cancels called for, p. 135 correctly numbered and italic I in headline on p. 346 of Paradise Lost. Includes full list of subscribers, including Benjamin Franklin. Gaskell 4, 5. Bookplates (John Hadmar Sticht); wear to edges, hinges, and spine ends; signature N in Paradise Regain'd pulled loose; front cover of Paradise Lost detached, still an attractive set.
Seller: Locus Solus Rare Books (ABAA, ILAB), Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$1147.38 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: A beautiful edition of Milton's famous theological poem. The first edition of this work to be printed by John Baskerville, and one of the earliest books to be printed in his innovative transitional typeface. Paradise Regain'd was composed in Milton's cottage in Chalfont St Giles in Buckinghamshire, and was based on the Gospel of Luke's version of the Temptation of Christ. The poem is four books in length, in contrast with Paradise Lost's twelve. One of the major concepts emphasised throughout Paradise Regained is the play on reversals. As implied by its title, Milton sets out to reverse the "loss" of Paradise. Thus, antonyms are often found next to each other throughout the poem, reinforcing the idea that everything that was lost in the first epic is going to be regained by the end of the mini-epic. In a beautiful crushed morocco binding with marbled boards. Externally, lovely condition although front hinge is strained. Internally, firmly bound, generally bright and clean if not for slight marginal water damage affecting first and last few pages. Very Good
Seller: Rooke Books PBFA, Bath, United Kingdom
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Two volumes. First Baskerville edition. Bound in full brown calf with gilt borders with designs in four corners to boards, gilt designs to edges, spines with five raised bands and designs in gilt to each compartment, black labels with titles in gilt to spines, brown topstains and speckled edges, marbled endpapers, John Earl of Hyndford bookplates to front pastedowns. Very good set, spine ends and corners with some repair, outer hinges reinforced, with some wear to corners, some wear and thin cracks to spine hinges, a bit of rubbing to gilt on spines and edges. Overall, an excellent and well-preserved set. Paradise Lost includes a preface by the set's famed printer, John Baskerville, which gives insight into his approach to printing. Paradise Regain'd includes a biographical section titled "Life of Milton" and two additional works by Milton - "Samson Agonistes" and "Poems upon Several Occasions." Both volumes have the bookplate of John Carmichael, a Scottish diplomat and nobleman of the 18th century, attached to their front pastedowns. Paradise Lost is a blank-verse poem that relates the story of Adam and Eve's expulsion from the idyllic Garden of Eden. Originally published in ten books, Milton revised the first edition by breaking two longer chapters in half, creating a total of twelve books. Like Virgil's Aeneid, Paradise Lost is half the length of both of Homer's epics. Milton began composing Paradise Lost after he had gone completely blind; he memorized his verses and orated them to friends and family for inscription. Although this process was due to disability rather than lack of modern technology, the oration of the poem further solidifies this text's ties to earlier epic poetry. Paradise Regain'd is Milton's sequel text to Paradise Lost, focusing on the devil's forty-day temptation of Jesus and the ultimate triumph of good over evil. While the former concerns the temptation of man, the latter explores the temptation of God himself.
Seller: B & B Rare Books, Ltd., ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$1680.90 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Octavo. 2 volumes. 8vo. Preface [3], [1], list of subscribers [18], half-title, [5], lxix, 416; 390. Early 20th century full morocco with gilt floral pattern borders to front and rear boards, six compartments and five raised bands, gilt tooling on bands and gilt decorated compartments with gilt stamped lettering to compartments two and three. Gilt inner dentelles, all edges gilt and marbled endpapers. Small bookplate of Abel E. Berland to pastedown endpaper in volume 1 only. Small red stamp of a bird to the bottom fore-edge corner of each title page, very faint in the second volume. The h in 'God his light' rubbed out by hand on page 75 line 3. Light rubbing to the leather around the spine ends and a few very light scuffs but overall a very clean and tight set.
Seller: Karol Krysik Books ABAC/ILAB, IOBA, PBFA, Toronto, ON, Canada
Price: US$2000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: A very impressive example of the 1758 1st John Baskerville edition, complete in 2 volumes. Both volumes tight and VG+ in their handsome late 18th-early 19th century full calf. 5 raised bands along each spine, fine gilt-tooling within the compartments, bright gilt-letterered title and author labels. Just a touch of light scuffing at the panels, very light rubbing along the spine bases. Elegant armorial bookplate to each front pastedown, otherwise very clean internally, with only light, infrequent foxing. Octavos, lovely matching marbled endpapers.
Seller: APPLEDORE BOOKS, ABAA, WACCABUC, NY, U.S.A.
MILTON, John.. Paradise Lost.Paradise Regain'd.. Birmingham, John Baskerville, 1758., 1758.
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First Baskerville edition. 8vo. Nicely bound by Zaehnsdorf in full polished speckled calf, richly gilt stamped, 3 green leather spine labels, edges extra gilt, marbled endpapers. Fresh set, no foxing. Enclosed in a green cloth slipcase. 2 volumes. Gaskell 4 and 5.
Seller: Houle Rare Books/Autographs/ABAA/PADA, Palm Springs, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$3328.00 + shipping
Description: 230 x 145 mm. (9 x 5 5/8"). With subscribers' list in first volume. Two volumes. Edited by Thomas Newton. EXCEPTIONALLY PRETTY OLIVE GREEN STRAIGHT GRAIN MOROCCO, HANDSOMELY GILT, for Sotheran ("H. Sotheran & Co." printed in gilt on front turn-in), covers panelled with multiple straight and stippled borders, scrolling floral cornerpieces, six mounds of massed tools on the inner side of the central frame (two on each side, and one at head and foot), raised bands, spine compartments elaborately gilt in antique style with scrolled foliate cornerpieces between double ruled borders and centerpiece star of small tools, very ornate inner dentelles, all edges gilt. Gaskell 4, 5; Brunet III, 1730; Graesse IV, 529. âBackstrips faded to an attractive brown (as usual with green morocco), otherwise only very trivial imperfections: AN EXTREMELY FINE COPY, VIRTUALLY IMMACULATE INTERNALLY, AND IN AN UNWORN, HANDSOMELY DECORATED BINDING. This is a very handsomely bound copy of the third product of the Baskerville Press, considered to be one of its most attractive smaller format books. Aside from the obvious value of Milton's great text, the publication is also of importance for what its publisher says in the preface. After allowing that he has reaped "great satisfaction" over the positive reception of his Virgil, the press' beautiful first book, Baskerville spells out the aims that guided his and, afterwards, many another special press: "It is not my desire to print many books," he says, "but such only, as are books of consequence, of intrinsic merit, or established reputation, and which the public may be pleased to see in an elegant dress, and to purchase at such a price, as will repay the extraordinary care and expense that must necessarily be bestowed upon them." In addition to "Paradise Regain'd," the second volume here also contains "Samson Agonistes," "Poems on Several Occasions," a selection of sonnets and psalms, and a biographical introduction. Our remarkably well-preserved copy comes from the second state of the text (with the printing error on page 135 corrected).
Seller: Phillip J. Pirages Rare Books (ABAA), McMinnville, OR, U.S.A.
Price: US$5500.00 + shipping
Description: First edition. Two Volumes. An extremely scarce, original Baskerville binding, bound in his own workshop, with distinct features characteristic of Baskervilleís art and technique, especially the floral roll and his types stamped to spine. As well, the provenance of this book links it directly to Baskerville. This copy is Everard Homeís Copy (with his bookplate). Home was the brother-in-law of John Hunter (who was also his teacher), and Hunter was the brother of William Hunter whose Anatomy of the human gravid uterus was published by Baskerville in 1774. Hunter was also a subscriber of Baskervilleís Milton. It is likely this copy came from Hunter. We have verified through Aurelie Martin, the foremost scholar on Baskerville bindings, that this must indeed be a Baskerville binding. Martin states, ìBaskerville hired one or two binders around 1758 to bind some of his editions and produce a decorated paper. The majority of these bindings will have this distinctive decorated paper, but some of the very early Milton bindings do not; and they usually have this comb marbled paper [i.e. found our copy]. As well, the edges are usually sprinkled in blue on these few examples [which appears on our copy]. So your two-volume Milton comes from his workshop, as confirmed by the types used to title the spine of his books and other tools found on the spine (such as the little acorn and the triangular one in the angles of the compartment). Gaskell first noted that Baskerville used his own types to tool the titles on the spine of his bindings and this is confirmed on your copies. Finally, the endbands also correspond to those I have found so far (the color may vary of course, but they have the same number and type of threads). Attractively bound in early full polished calf with border gilt designs on all covers, gilt decorated panels on spine, with two morocco labels (one red, one black) with gilt lettering. The scarce first Baskerville edition. "Paradise Lost. A Poem in Twelve Books. The Author John Milton From the Text of Thomas Newton D.D. Birmingham," with lengthy preface and list of subscribers, 416pp; "Paradise Regain'd A Poem in Four Books To Which is Added Samson Agonistes: and Poems upon Several Occasions," also including "The Life of Milton" LXIX pp. and 390pp. All edges stippled in blue. A wonderful set, with some expert cover repair to spines; Vol. 2 with longitudinal split along spine, but repaired. Near fine internally. Everard Home's Copy, with his bookplate of knight's head affixed to both volumes. Home (1756-1832) was a well-known baronet and physician who is best remembered as the first to describe the fossil "Ichthyosaur." A great rarity.
Seller: Nudelman Rare Books, Seattle, WA, U.S.A.
Price: US$6409.93 + shipping
Description: First Baskerville edition, among the finest of all editions, here in an elegant and well-preserved contemporary binding in very commendable condition, and extra-illustrated with the celebrated designs of Francis Hayman. The edition was also issued in quarto, which this octavo issue preceded by six months (see Gaskell p. 26). Gaskell 4 & 5. 2 volumes, octavo (225 x 141 mm). Contemporary red morocco, twin green labels, gilt in compartments with floral devices, gilt border to covers enclosing large gilt centrepiece, marbled endpapers, edges marbled and gilt. Extra illustrated, Paradise Lost with portrait of Milton by George Vertue and 12 plates by Johann Sebastian Müller after Francis Hayman; Paradise regained with 5 plates by Charles Grignion after Hayman. Bound without initial blanks; the Life of Milton normally found in Paradise Regained is bound in Paradise Lost. A fine copy.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom