Beschreibung:

EDWARDS OF HALIFAX, bindery]. -- VIRGILIUS MARO, Publius (70-19 B.C.). Bucolica, Georgica, et Aeneis. Birmingham: John Baskerville 1766.
EDWARDS OF HALIFAX, bindery]. -- VIRGILIUS MARO, Publius (70-19 B.C.). Bucolica, Georgica, et Aeneis. Birmingham: John Baskerville 1766. 8 o (180 x 117 mm). Engraved vignette on title page (spotting throughout). Contemporary vellum, covers with gilt cable roll over blue wash borders, enclosing a painted border of classical palmettes and small gilt floral centerpieces, covers with drawings under the vellum, the upper cover showing a woman gazing out to sea, the lower cover showing a musician seated on the bank of a stream, smooth spine gilt-lettered on a blue wash background and divided into 6 compartments by blue wash and gilt bands, the remaining 5 compartments with alternating ornamental gilt panels, turn-ins gilt, blue silk doublures with gilt border, gilt edges concealing a fore-edge painting of MOUNT VESUVIUS IN ERUPTION (parts of two board edges rubbed away, some slight loss of blue to spine); modern half morocco slipcase. Provenance: Estelle Doheny (bookplate; her sale Christie's, 17 October 1988, lot 1318). Although the fore-edge painting is somewhat crudely drawn, it is probably contemporary as it is closely based on plate X of Hamilton's Campi Phlegraei. Weber notes that the portraits painted under the vellum show through with "amazing clarity and brilliance" even now, 200 years after their creation. Weber I, pp. 135, 136, illustration facing p.48; Weber II, p.7, illustration facing p.8.