Title: POETICAL WORKS OF SIR WALTER SCOTT
Publisher: London: T. Nelson and Sons.
Publication Date: 1874
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Very Good
xix, 612 printed pages. Engraved title page and 7 chromolithographic plates. All edges gilt. Some mild spotting. Contemporary owners gift inscription on front free endpaper. Inner hinges strengthened with silk royal blue tape. 12 x 17 cm. Contemporary mauchline fern gift binding. Spine in black Niger morocco, raised bands with fleur de lys and coronet gilt emblems and gilt titling within double fillet gilt lines (very slightly rubbed). Both upper and lower boards in original, nature-printed, Mauchline Fern ware, stencilled with fern designs on wood boards with shellac (very slightly scratched in places & rear lower corner fractionally worn). Inner gilt printed scrolling. Mauchline Ware was a decorative technique that originated in the 1830s in the Scottish town of Mauchline in which a transfer print of a wood engraving, often a colour design (tartan or floral motif), was applied to a lacquered wooden object. The fern, unlike other plants, particularly lent itself to being used for stencil decoration. The fronds are instantly recognisable and Fern Ware was used to decorate trays, tea caddies, boxes and treen. Fern ware bindings mainly date from the 1870s, being an adaptation of Mauchline ware. In most cases actual ferns were used directly or indirectly, using three or four different processes in the manufacture. After the ferns were applied to the wooden surface it was then subjected to a dark brown stipple treatment before the removal of the ferns and subsequent varnishing. The method meant each design was unique and different from another and it was far less often used in book bindings than on other objects. Trachtenberg & Keith's reference text "Mauchline Ware", 2002, did not find an example to illustrate their reference guide with. This is a pleasing example of a specialised binding. Seller Inventory # 5207