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John Martin. The Paradise Lost Of Milton With Illustrations Designed And Engraved By John Martin Volume I. Septimus Prowett, 1827.

Price: US$913.25 + shipping

Condition: Good

Description: 1827. Septimus Prowett . Hardcover. ACCEPTABLE Leather boards. Gilt titles. Slight edgewear. Patterned spine. Spine worn. Previous owners name on front inside board. Spine cracked. End pages marked. Foxing throughout. 9 x 6.

Seller: Cambridge Rare Books, Cambridge, GLOUC, United Kingdom

John Milton. The Paradise Lost of Milton (2 Vols.). Septimus Prowett, London, 1827.

Price: US$1500.00 + shipping

Condition: Very Good

Description: The very important 1827 London edition, marking the original appearance of illustrator John Martin's breathtaking mezzotint engravings. Complete in 2 quarto volumes, constituting 12 books all told. Bound in a contemporary-to-the-period (if not the publisher's original) dark-brown 1/4 leather over light-brown marbled boards. Bright git-titling to the spines (with just a bit of rubbing), gilt-bordering at the front and rear panels (showing a bit of offsetting), all edges gilt. Very light scuffing along the spines, light wear at the spine ends. Internally very sharp, with mild, intermittent foxing to a number of the pages but, thankfully, all of Martin's plates very clean, if not bordering on pristine. Professionally, subtly reinforced at the inner hinges, making for a strong. very sturdy binding. The remarkable illustrations by John Martin (1789-1854), the renowned English painter and engraver, beautifully complement Milton's ethereal text.

Seller: APPLEDORE BOOKS, ABAA, WACCABUC, NY, U.S.A.

Milton, John. Paradise Lost. With Illustrations, Designed and Engraved By John Martin. London, Septimus Prowett, 1827.

Price: US$1950.00 + shipping

Condition: Fine

Description: Two volumes, tall Imperial octavos, almost small folio in appearance, contemporary polished tan russia gilt, all edges gilt, rebacked preserving original gilt spines, hinges and spines a bit rubbed and trifle chipped, usual minor foxing within, fine set. Martin's famed mezzotint engravings for this work are an acknowledged high point of British book uillustration, and are among the most powerful expressions evoked by Milton's epic, placing Martin's illustrations on a level between those of Blake and those of Dore. Kohler 107. First edition with the Martin illustrations.

Seller: G. W. Stuart, Jr., ABAA(emeritus), Yuma, AZ, U.S.A.

MILTON John MARTIN John. Paradise Lost. , 1827.

Price: US$6500.00 + shipping

Description: (MARTIN, John, illustrator) MILTON, John. The Paradise Lost of Milton. With Illustrations, Designed and Engraved by John Martin. London: Septimus Prowett, 1827. Two volumes. Royal octavo, contemporary full dark green pebbled morocco gilt, raised bands, all edges gilt. $6500.First edition, large octavo issue, of John Martin's beautifully illustrated Paradise Lost, with 24 full-page mezzotints, finely bound in full contemporary morocco-gilt.Martin's illustrated edition of Paradise Lost "was one of the great publishing enterprises of an age" (Ray, 44). In Paradise Lost, "the apocalyptic romanticism of [Martin's] conceptions has many sources: the monumental buildings of London, the engravings of Piranesi, the many recently published volumes of eastern views, even incandescent gas, coal pit accidents, and Brunel's new Thames Tunnel. The resulting illustrations may be heterogeneous, but they are also unforgettable" (Ray, 44-45). First published in 1825-27 in both quarto and large octavo formats, this is the large octavo issue. Martin executed the mezzotints himself, for both formats (Ray). Bookplate.Occasional foxing to plates, chiefly marginal, and less than often found. Contemporary morocco-gilt bindings handsome and fine. An excellent copy of this wonderfully illustrated edition.

Seller: Bauman Rare Books, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.

MILTON, John; MARTIN, John (illus.). The Paradise Lost of Milton.. London: Septimus Prowett, 1827, 1827.

Price: US$8447.05 + shipping

Description: First Martin edition in book form, a most handsome copy of the scarcer and more desirable large plate issue. John Martin's Paradise Lost holds a strong claim to be the finest illustrated edition of the poem ever produced. Already famous as an artist for his bold and melodramatic paintings, Martin was commissioned by Septimus Prowett to turn his talents to Milton. Unlike other artists in the period who were commissioned for book illustration, who generally produced paintings which were then replicated as engravings, Martin produced his illustrations directly as mezzotints. The possibilities of mezzotints, which allow far greater detail and experimentation with lighting than usual steel engravings, were fully exploited by Martin, and in turn Paradise Lost "was ideal material for Martin, who echoed Milton's solemnity while opening out his cadences in the imagery of groves and chases bathed in silvery light and an underworld where fires tongue the darkness and bridges span nothingness and Satan's armies infest the gloom. In mezzotint Martin's vision thrived" (ODNB). Martin engraved each illustration twice, on a larger and a smaller plate size. The work was issued in eight different formats, four with the larger plates and four with the smaller. There is no priority between the larger or smaller plate issues, or the eight formats. Yet the plate size is a major consideration for the collector and certainly to be preferred, as the larger plates are superior in detail and execution; the smaller mezzotints "suffer greatly from reduction" (Ray, p. 45). Prior to their publication in the present book form, the plates were first published in 12 parts from 1825 to 1827. Muir, p. 75; Ray 69A. Two volumes bound in one, large quarto (380 x 270 mm). Contemporary burgundy morocco, elaborately gilt-tooled, turn-ins and edges gilt. With 24 mezzotint illustrations by Martin with tissue guards, in the larger format. A very handsome binding with only minor rubbing to extremities, some offsetting from plates, occasional light foxing, chiefly to margins. Generally excellent condition.

Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom