Details
BLUNT, Wilfrid Scawen (1840-1922). The Love-Lyrics & Songs of Proteus. Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1892.
4° (205 x 145mm). Printed in Golden type, 2 woodcut borders, each poem opening with a woodcut initial by Hooper after Morris, woodcut press device after Morris on colophon leaf [Peterson 'Printer's marks' 1]. Original vellum with light blue silk ties [by J. & J. Leighton], yapp edges, spine lettered in gilt (lightly marked and slightly bowed, c. 4mm crack at foot of spine, ties detached, retaining 3). Provenance: 'Violet Fane' (i.e. Mary Montgomerie Singleton, later Lady Currie (1843-1905), presentation inscription on flyleaf 'Violet Fane from Proteus April 29. 1892') -- Downing, Birmingham (bookseller's ticket).
PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY BLUNT TO HIS ERSTWHILE LOVER THE NOVELIST 'VIOLET FANE', the subject of sonnet LV, 'St. Valentine's day'. The writer Mary Singleton achieved a succès de scandale with her collection of poetry From Dawn to Noon (London: 1872), published under the pseudonym 'Violet Fane', and swiftly established herself in London literary and artistic society, counting Wilde, Robert Browning, Swinburne, and Whistler amongst her circle. In the early 1870s she commenced a very public affair with Blunt's cousin, the diplomat Philip Currie, whom she married after the death of her husband in 1893, and in 1880, she began a relationship with Blunt. 'Her combination of wit and emotion sparked off in Wilfrid a new electric storm of poetry' (E. Longford A Pilgrimage of Passion (London: 1979), p. 161), producing sonnet LV, 'St. Valentine's Day', which uses the description of a hunt as its conceit, ending: 'I seemed to see and follow still your face. Your face my quarry was. For it I rode My horse a thing of wings, myself a god' (p. 162). However, the relationship between Blunt and Singleton did not last long (although he kept in his papers a bunch of everlasting flowers tied with crimson ribbon given by her), but the two remained friends, connected by family, literary and other ties. This copy was inscribed to her shortly after his return from Egypt (where he had been since the beginning of the year), and is one of the earliest copies to be inscribed: the only earlier copies than can be traced are those inscribed to Frederick Locker-Lampson (22 April 1892, Peterson A3s) and Jane Morris (received by her on 26 April 1892, cf. Peterson The Kelmscott Press. A History (Oxford: 1991), p. 226). Limited to 300 copies on flower paper. Peterson A3; Ransom 'Kelmscott' 3; Tomkinson 'Kelmscott' 3.
4° (205 x 145mm). Printed in Golden type, 2 woodcut borders, each poem opening with a woodcut initial by Hooper after Morris, woodcut press device after Morris on colophon leaf [Peterson 'Printer's marks' 1]. Original vellum with light blue silk ties [by J. & J. Leighton], yapp edges, spine lettered in gilt (lightly marked and slightly bowed, c. 4mm crack at foot of spine, ties detached, retaining 3). Provenance: 'Violet Fane' (i.e. Mary Montgomerie Singleton, later Lady Currie (1843-1905), presentation inscription on flyleaf 'Violet Fane from Proteus April 29. 1892') -- Downing, Birmingham (bookseller's ticket).
PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY BLUNT TO HIS ERSTWHILE LOVER THE NOVELIST 'VIOLET FANE', the subject of sonnet LV, 'St. Valentine's day'. The writer Mary Singleton achieved a succès de scandale with her collection of poetry From Dawn to Noon (London: 1872), published under the pseudonym 'Violet Fane', and swiftly established herself in London literary and artistic society, counting Wilde, Robert Browning, Swinburne, and Whistler amongst her circle. In the early 1870s she commenced a very public affair with Blunt's cousin, the diplomat Philip Currie, whom she married after the death of her husband in 1893, and in 1880, she began a relationship with Blunt. 'Her combination of wit and emotion sparked off in Wilfrid a new electric storm of poetry' (E. Longford A Pilgrimage of Passion (London: 1979), p. 161), producing sonnet LV, 'St. Valentine's Day', which uses the description of a hunt as its conceit, ending: 'I seemed to see and follow still your face. Your face my quarry was. For it I rode My horse a thing of wings, myself a god' (p. 162). However, the relationship between Blunt and Singleton did not last long (although he kept in his papers a bunch of everlasting flowers tied with crimson ribbon given by her), but the two remained friends, connected by family, literary and other ties. This copy was inscribed to her shortly after his return from Egypt (where he had been since the beginning of the year), and is one of the earliest copies to be inscribed: the only earlier copies than can be traced are those inscribed to Frederick Locker-Lampson (22 April 1892, Peterson A3s) and Jane Morris (received by her on 26 April 1892, cf. Peterson The Kelmscott Press. A History (Oxford: 1991), p. 226). Limited to 300 copies on flower paper. Peterson A3; Ransom 'Kelmscott' 3; Tomkinson 'Kelmscott' 3.
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