John Milton | Paradise Lost and Paradise Regain'd. Cresset Press, 1931, in a jewelled binding

John Milton.

Paradise Lost [and:] Paradise Regain'd. Oxford: Shakespeare Head Press for the Cresset Press, 1931.

2 volumes in 1, folio (370 x 270 mm), UNNUMBERED COPY FROM THE EDITION OF 195 COPIES ON BATCHERLOR'S HANDMADE PAPER, wood-engravings by Demetrios Galanis, JEWELLED BINDING BY SANGORSKI AND SUTCLIFFE, full crimson morocco elaborately gilt, decorated with patterns of peacock feathers on upper and lower boards, each of the 72 feathers set with an oval chrysoberyl, additionally set with 44 moonstones, gilt borders set with an oval sodalite at each corner, gilt dentelles, top edge gilt, silk endpapers, collector's folding red morocco backed box

Francis Sangorski and George Sutcliffe undertook their first jewelled binding in 1904, and over the following years their designs became increasingly more ambitious and elaborate. Based on their reputation of fine craftsmanship and imaginative design, their work revived the art of jewelled bindings and became a central part of the work of the firm. Francis Sangorski drowned in 1912, leaving Sutcliffe to run the firm alone. Evocative of the firm's most magnificent and lavish peacock designs, this attractive binding is enriched with numerous stones on both the upper and lower boards. The "monumental two-folio" edition of Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regain'd was "was the final and finest book issued by the Cresset Press" (Sharon Achinstein, online catalogue for Citizen Milton, Bodleian Library, 2007-2008).