POEMS OF THOMAS HOOD (1799-1845) Illustrated by BIRKET FOSTER (1825-1899). 

Publisher: E. Moxon, Son & Company, London, 1872. First edition.

Description: Brown cloth covers with beveled edges and elaborate gilt design and spine and a smaller gilt design. Back cover has blind stamped borders. Gilt edges all around. Frontis engraving by Birket Foster with bound in tissue guard and 21 others throughout the text. 

Condition:  Very good. Gilt on cover is bright and in excellent condition. (see photos) Spine is sun toned. Corners are bumped and spine top and bottom are bent. Ex Library (New Haven) book plate on inside cover and residue from another, but these are the only library markings. Gutter of front cover is split, but cover is firmly attached. Pages are clean and tight to the spine.

Pages: 180 plus 4 advertising. 

Size: 8.75" x 11.25"

Weight: 3 lbs 7 ozs

Thomas Hood was an English poet, author and humorist, best known for poems such as "The Bridge of Sighs" and "The Song of the Shirt". Hood wrote regularly for The London Magazine, Athenaeum, and Punch. He later published a magazine largely consisting of his own works. Wikipedia

Myles Birket Foster was an English genre artist, best known for his Victorian-era illustrations of rural scenes and children. Born on February 4, 1825 in North Shields, England, Foster was celebrated as one of the most popular watercolor artist of the era. His idealized, sepia-toned countryside prints and paintings were popularized and reproduced on the cover of books, magazines, and chocolate boxes. Developing a love for the arts through apprenticing under the engraver Ebenezer Landells, Foster quickly moved from commercial printing to the fine arts. An autodidactic watercolor painter, he traveled throughout Europe to immerse himself in varied environments, finally settling in Witley, England where he produced the works which brought him widespread recognition. Before his death on March 27, 1899 in Weybridge, England, Foster exhibited over 400 paintings at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.  ARTNET