YEATS, W.B. Poems

London: T. Fisher Unwin Ltd., [1920]. 8vo. pp. [xvi], 314, with mounted portrait frontispiece after a drawing by John Butler Yeats. Finely bound in full dark green morocco, covers elaborately decorated in blind with Celtic-inspired interlacing and ornamental tooling, spine richly lettered and decorated in gilt with Art Nouveau motifs. Top edge gilt. pp. 314. A very good to near fine copy, internally fresh and clean, the binding exceptionally well preserved.

A handsome collected edition of Yeats’s poetry, bringing together many of the works upon which his reputation was founded, including The Wanderings of Oisin, The Rose, The Wind Among the Reeds, and other key productions of the Irish Literary Revival. The volume contains the publisher’s retrospective note recording the publication history of Yeats’s principal early collections.

Of particular appeal is the striking decorative binding, executed in a distinctly Celtic Revival style entirely in keeping with the aesthetic ideals associated with the Irish Literary Revival. The mounted portrait frontispiece after John Butler Yeats, father of the poet and one of Ireland’s most accomplished portrait artists, further enhances the volume’s attractiveness.

An unusually handsome copy of Yeats’s collected poems, combining literary significance with a finely executed decorative binding of considerable visual appeal. An attractive addition to any collection of Yeats, Irish literature, or fine bindings.

[L4 8E]