Firdausi in Exile Large Paper Edmund Gosse Zaenhsdorf Exhibition Binding 1885

GOSSE, Edmund. Firdausi in Exile and Other Poems. One of 50 Large-Paper Copies. Barry Humphries's Copy in a Zaehnsdorf Exhibition Binding.
 
London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1885.
 
First edition, large-paper issue, number 26 of only 50 copies. Large 8vo. x, 224 pp. Frontispiece with tissue guard; title page printed in red and black with the publisher's woodcut device. Printed at the Chiswick Press. This copy is not signed at the limitation by the printer, as is also the case with other recorded examples. Bound by Zaehnsdorf in a magnificent full dark green crushed morocco exhibition binding, the boards richly decorated with broad gilt floral borders incorporating circular panels containing ships and musical instruments, the spine similarly elaborately gilt and lettered, with gilt board edges, exceptionally ornate gilt turn-ins, white watered-silk doublures and endpapers, top edge gilt and the remaining edges uncut. Stamped Exhibition Binding mark to the lower rear turn-in. With the pictorial bookplate of Barry Humphries to the front endpaper. Minor rubbing and wear to the extremities, but the binding remains firm, clean and remarkably impressive. Very Good.
 
One of only 50 large-paper copies of Gosse's collection, produced on substantial handmade paper with deliberately untrimmed edges. Firdausi in Exile takes as its subject the Persian poet Ferdowsi, traditionally said to have spent decades composing the Shahnameh before falling from royal favour. The volume also contains a collection of Gosse's shorter poetry. Gosse was among the most influential literary critics of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods and later became best known for his autobiographical work Father and Son.
 
The principal distinction of this copy is its extraordinary contemporary Zaehnsdorf exhibition binding. From the library of Barry Humphries.