John Milton - The Poetical Works of John Milton in Vellucent Binding - 1897

First Thus.

A very nice example of a Vellucent binding by Cedric Chivers of Bath (and signed to the rear inside board).

Full dark blue leather, with a lovely Art Nouveau wreath design. This has a small Mother of Pearl inlay to the top and is gilt decoration around. The design if clean and well defined.

There is a small rubbing / discolouration to the corners of the boards. The spine has a simple gilt decoration. The blue of the spine is significantly faded to a brown. All edges gilt. Still a very nice example of Chiver’s work.

The book within is the “Albion Edition” of Milton’s poetical works, with a frontis of the poet. 608 pages. A good clean example of Milton’s poems. Chivers developed the technique of “Vellucent binding.” First a design was painted on paper and covered with a thin, treated and thus translucent layer of vellum.

Chivers patented his method in 1898, so our example was produced around this time. This example shows two of Chiver’s additional embellishments, with a small piece of Mother of Pearl and gilt detailing.

200 by 140mm (7¾ by 5½ inches).