[HERRICK, Robert], [WOLFE, Humbert, pref.]
The Poetical Works of Robert Herrick
[Volumes I-III: Hesperides; Volume IV: Noble Numbers & Additional Poems]
London: The Cresset Press Ltd., 1928

First edition thus. Four crown octavo volumes (overall 19.2 x 13.5 cm, 7-3/4 x 5-3/8 in.). No. 725 of 750 numbered copies, printed on fine mould-made laid paper in Fell type at the University Press, Oxford. Decorations by Albert Rutherston (color woodcut frontispiece and woodcut tailpiece to each volume; red woodcut headpiece on fly-titles in vols. I and IV). Beige parchment covers, gilt lettering on spines, top edges gilt, others uncut; original glassine; publisher’s beige paper-covered cardboard slipcase. Collates vol. I: [2 ll.], 1 l. (half-title verso, colophon recto), 1 l. (frontispiece illustration recto), 1 l. (title verso, publisher’s statement recto), pp. ix-lxxxix (preface), [1 p.], 1 l. (fly-title), pp. 3-[90], [2 ll.]; vol. II: [1 l.], 1 l. (half-title verso, colophon recto), 1 l. (frontispiece illustration recto), 1 l. (title verso, publisher’s statement recto), pp. [vii]-xiv (list of poem titles), [1 l.], pp. 3-[175], [1 l.]; vol. III: [1 l.], 1 l. (half-title verso, colophon recto), 1 l. (frontispiece illustration recto), 1 l. (title verso, publisher’s statement recto), pp. [vii]-xv (list of poem titles), [1 p.], [1 l.], pp. 3-[179], [1 p.], [1 l.]; vol. IV: [1 l.], 1 l. (half-title verso, colophon recto), 1 l. (frontispiece illustration recto), 1 l. (title verso, publisher’s statement recto), pp. [vii]-xii (list of poem titles), 1 l. (fly-title), pp. 3-144, [1 l.]. Slight toning of spines, slight binder’s offsetting on endpapers, slight smudging extreme tip upper corner of book block (from gilding?), else fine, an unopened set; the glassine overall fair, in three tattered pieces for one volume, else 10 mm section missing on another spine and minor edge fraying; fair slipcase with considerable edgewear and some surface abrasion. (We would recommend a custom clamshell box and can assist the purchaser at cost; please inquire.) The poet Humbert Wolfe (1885-1940), basing his long preface here solely on the researches of F.W. Moorman and the poems themselves taken from Professor Moorman’s Oxford text, crafts an account “full of feeling, and feeling typical of Herrick,” who “sang as freshly and as clearly as any that ever flitted over the greenwood” and takes “his place among the greatest because his perfection is with small and not with large things.”

Price: $200
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