Oliver Cromwell by Charles Firth, Winchester College Prize Binding, 1905
Oliver Cromwell by Charles Firth, Winchester College Prize Binding, 1905
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This is a fine full red morocco Winchester College prize binding, the front board tooled in gilt with the arms of William of Wykeham and the College motto, Manners Makyth Man. Inside, the printed prize label records that it was awarded from Part V of the College on the 5th of April 1906, for diligence in letters and good conduct. The binding is all-edges-gilt with marbled endpapers and a geometric Greek-key dentelle along the turn-ins, and it carries the ticket of E. S. Fowler, a bookseller in Eastbourne. Charles Firth's biography of Cromwell happens to be the text inside, which is a serious piece of scholarship in its own right, but a documented school prize binding in this condition is the reason to own it.
The binding is solid and the boards are bright, with the gilt armorial and border tooling crisp and fully legible. There is wear to the leather at the head of the spine and to the spine ends, with some surface loss at the top corner near the joint, all consistent with age and normal handling. The raised bands and gilt spine devices remain sharp. The hinges are sound. Inside, the text block is clean and tight, the all-edges-gilt still bright, with the printed prize label tipped to the front and the bookseller ticket on the pastedown. The folding map of Ireland and the portrait plates are present and clean. A handsome prize binding in very good condition overall.
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