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1866 ALFRED TENNYSON — MAUD, AND OTHER POEMS
TWELFTH EDITION — PUBLISHED DURING TENNYSON’S LIFETIME
INCLUDES THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
FULL CRIMSON MOROCCO LEATHER
THEMATIC GILT LYRE BINDING
ALL EDGES GILT
1942 AMERICAN POETRY-PRIZE PROVENANCE
TENNYSON, Alfred. Maud, and Other Poems. London: Edward Moxon & Co., 1866.
Twelfth Edition. 170 pages.
A handsome lifetime edition of Tennyson’s Maud, distinguished by an unusually attractive nineteenth-century full crimson morocco leather binding decorated with gilt lyres, floral tools, and ornamental borders.
The thematic decoration was clearly chosen to complement the book’s poetic contents. A prominent classical lyre appears on the upper cover, while smaller lyre tools are repeated across the richly gilt spine.
The volume also contains Tennyson’s celebrated Crimean War poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” beginning on page 167.
THE 1866 TWELFTH EDITION
First published in 1855, Maud is one of Tennyson’s most ambitious and psychologically complex works.
Structured as a dramatic sequence of lyrics, the poem follows a troubled narrator through grief, social alienation, obsessive love, violence, madness, and war. Tennyson revised the work following its initial appearance, and this 1866 edition presents the later lifetime text.
The collection contains:
• Maud
• The Brook: An Idyl
• The Letters
• Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington
• The Daisy
• To the Rev. F. D. Maurice
• Will
• The Charge of the Light Brigade
“The Charge of the Light Brigade,” inspired by the disastrous British cavalry charge at Balaclava during the Crimean War, begins on page 167.
Its inclusion gives the book additional appeal to collectors of Victorian poetry, military literature, and the cultural history of the Crimean War.
THE THEMATIC LYRE BINDING
Bound in full crimson morocco leather, apparently contemporary or near contemporary with the book.
The upper cover is lettered in the lettering is a prominently placed classical lyre, surrounded by multiple gilt fillet borders, floral ornaments, corner devices, and symmetrically arranged decorative tools.
The rear cover carries a complementary gilt frame.
The spine is divided by raised bands into richly decorated compartments containing repeated lyre and foliate tools. This continuation of the musical motif across both the cover and spine gives the binding an unusually coherent thematic design.
Binding features include:
• Full crimson morocco leather
• Central gilt classical lyre on the upper cover
• Gilt floral and foliate decoration
• Multiple gilt fillet borders
• Raised spine bands
• Repeated gilt lyre tools on the spine
• Gilt title lettering
• Gilt board edges
• Gilt inner dentelles or turn-ins
• Primrose-yellow endpapers
• All edges gilt
The binding is unsigned, and no attribution to a particular binder is made. Nevertheless, its purpose-designed lyre decoration makes it considerably more distinctive than an ordinary Victorian prize or library binding.
1942 POETRY-PRIZE PROVENANCE
A typed or printed presentation slip tipped to the front flyleaf records the book’s award as:
SECOND PRIZE
1942 NATIONAL THANKSGIVING POEM CONTEST
The slip identifies the Kentucky State Chairman as Mrs. Stephen Elliott Barnwell and names judges including Isabel McLennan McMeekin and Edwin Carlile Litsey.
This provides an unusual later American literary association, connecting a Victorian volume of Tennyson with organized poetry culture in twentieth-century Kentucky.
The award slip was attached with transparent pressure-sensitive tape. The tape has yellowed with age and caused visible staining around its attachment points.
The slip is presented as interesting documented provenance rather than as a major association or independent source of value.
CONDITION
Good to Very Good antiquarian condition.
The binding remains structurally sound and highly presentable. Both boards are firmly attached.
The crimson morocco leather shows age-related rubbing, scuffing, and surface wear, particularly along the joints, raised spine bands, board edges, and corners. The head and foot of the spine have wear, abrasion, and small losses of leather. The spine has darkened somewhat with age.
Despite this wear, the gilt lettering and decorative tooling remain bright and legible. The large lyre on the upper cover and the repeated lyre tools on the spine retain considerable visual impact.
The all-gilt page edges remain attractive.
Internally, the text is generally clean, with mild age toning, occasional light foxing, and scattered minor handling marks.
The primrose-yellow endpapers show normal age-related discoloration. The 1942 prize slip remains attached, with yellowed tape and associated staining as described.
Please examine all photographs carefully, particularly those showing the spine ends, joints, corners, lyre decoration, and taped prize slip. The photographs form an integral part of the condition description.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Author: Alfred Tennyson
Title: Maud, and Other Poems
Place: London
Publisher: Edward Moxon & Co.
Date: 1866
Edition: Twelfth Edition
Pagination: 170 pages
Binding: Full crimson morocco leather
Decoration: Gilt lyre, floral, foliate, and panel tooling
Spine: Raised bands with gilt lyre ornaments
Endpapers: Primrose yellow
Edges: All edges gilt
Provenance: Second Prize, 1942 National Thanksgiving Poem Contest
Language: English
Country of publication: United Kingdom
A highly decorative lifetime edition of Tennyson’s Maud, containing “The Charge of the Light Brigade” and preserved in a distinctive full crimson morocco leather binding with purpose-designed gilt lyre decoration.
An appealing copy for collectors of Alfred Tennyson, Victorian poetry, the Crimean War, decorative leather bindings, thematic bindings, and literary prize provenance.
