A really beautiful artifact and early imprint of Robert Browning's 21,000 line epic narrative poem, The Ring and the Book. Loathe to cover the original publisher's cloth, someone at a very early date had constructed a full morocco faux binding vertical clamshell box to house the set.
The box is structurally good with a structural breach at the corner of the sliding lid on the rear, but still attractive and sound. Rubbed through at points, consolidated at some point and re-dyed with some bleed to tooling. Very attractive, and it has done its job. The volume inside remain in a very good state as shown. It is possible that it was offered as a "production" from the publisher as a special edition. Sotheby's notes a similar example from auction many years ago, though no image is available, so visual comparison is not possible.
The Ring and the Book was, by a substantial margin, the best-selling of all Browning's works during his lifetime. The depth of its philosophical, psychological, and spiritual insight is a step up from anything Browning produced before or after, and the poem was almost universally hailed as a work of genius, restoring his and forever establishing his reputation among the first rank of English poets.
Browning, Robert. The Ring and the Book. London. Smith, Elder and Company. 1868-1869.
Volumes themselves have minor breeches to endsheets over mull and some light rubbing and light scattered foxing. Else quite good as shown.
