PALMER, Samuel (1805-81, illustrator) - John MILTON (1608-74). The Shorter Poems of John Milton, London, 1889, folio, 12 etched plates by Samuel Palmer, original pictorial vellum gilt. NUMBER 52 OF 135 "LARGE-PAPER" COPIES.

PALMER, Samuel (1805-81, illustrator) - John MILTON (1608-74).  The Shorter [half title: Minor] Poems of John Milton with Twelve Illustrations by Samuel Palmer, Painter and Etcher. London: Seeley & Company, 1889. Folio (380 x 270mm). Half title and title printed in red and black, 12 etched plates by Frederick Goulding after Samuel Palmer. Original pictorial vellum gilt, uncut (scuff mark to the upper cover, some light soiling), original prospectus for the work, priced at "Five Guineas", loosely-inserted. Provenance: From the Collection of Cecil Woodham-Smith (1896-1977). NUMBER 52 OF 135 "LARGE-PAPER" COPIES. Ray The Illustrator and the Book in England from 1790 to 1914 223: "... a stately volume ... ranks with [Palmer's] best work ..." "It was due to the sympathetic suggestion of a stranger ... that Palmer found a field in which he could exercise all his finest faculties and employ them to realise the dreams of a lifetime. This was a commission for drawings in illustration of 'L'Allegro' and 'Il Penseroso,' two of those 'minor poems' of Milton , a brass-clamped copy of which, given to him by his nurse on his death-bed, he had carried with him wherever he went for twenty years. 'I never,' he once wrote, 'knew such a sacred and home-felt delight as when endeavouring, in all humility, to realise, after a sort, the imagery of Milton.' Fortunately the growing infirmities of his body seem to have been accompanied by an increase in the clearness and completeness of his imagination, and though he took long about these drawings ... they may be regarded as the supreme expression of the man and the artist. Brilliant, rich, and powerful in colour, they are finished to a degree seldom attained, and yet, despite their elaboration, contain no touch unfelt or useless" (DNB).