Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers and other Poems.
With Illustrations by Joseph Noel Paton and Waller H. Paton.
Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1863 Stock Code: 137470
First Paton edition, superbly illustrated. "The book brims with Paton's half-page illustrations, headpieces and tailpieces (augmented by a few landscapes by his brother, Waller Paton) - the armour and historical costumes (Paton was a noted collector of these) perfectly realized to the last detail, the compositions unusual and forceful, the squeezed-together figures wild, Romantic, and brimming with personality, the effects of light and shade Germanic but dazzlingly tonal" (Suriano, p. 165).
Aytoun's Lays, first published 1849, were modelled on the works of Macaulay and Scott and "became important texts in the romantic revival in mid-Victorian Scotland" (ODNB), a movement which Victoria's passion for Scotland, first fired by her visit of 1842, did much to encourage.
Provenance: with a familial association, inscribed on the front free endpaper, "Walter Boldero Paton, In Memoriam A Mc K, 11 April 1866" and below this "Arthur C. L. Paton, e libris paternis from his father's books, May, 1937". Walter Boldero Paton (1853-1937) practised as a barrister and had been a keen and gifted footballer, who captained the Harrow team, and when still only 17 played in a representative match against Scotland in November 1870; he was part of the Oxford team that lost to Wanderers in the 1873 FA Cup Final.
Description
Quarto (242 x 180 mm). Contemporary red hard-grain morocco, spine with four pairs of raised bands decorated with a Greek key roll to dark green morocco onlays between the bands, gilt lettered direct, central foliate motif to compartments, sides with concentric gilt paired fillets, Greek key and palmette rolls, gilt foliate corner pieces on dark green onlays, gilt scrolling foliate roll to turn-ins, pale yellow-coated endpapers, gilt edges.
Illustrations
Numerous wood-engraved half-page illustrations, head-pieces and vignettes by Dalziel, Whymper, W. J. Linton and others after Joseph Noel Paton and Waller H. Paton.
Condition
Extremities rubbed, spine somewhat darkened, inner hinges cracked but sound, occasional thumbing else a very good copy, handsomely bound.
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