Books

5 volumes of Modern Painters and 1 volume Seven Lamps. The "Autograph Edition," signed by Ruskin at the end of the Preface to this New Edition, printed from the original plates, and limited to 1000 copies; second issue of Seven Lamps. With 3 frontispiece plates, 84 fine steel-engraved plates and 8 wood-engraved plates, in colours and black and white in the Modern Painters and with 14 fine plates and drawings by Ruskin in Seven Lamps. Thick, Royal 8vo, very handsomely bound by Zaehnsdorf in three quarter dark green crushed morocco over marbled paper covered boards, the spines with raised bands gilt stopped, the compartments with gilt ruled panel designs, central decorative tooling gilt, two compartments lettered in gilt, another dated at the foot, gilt ruled at the joins, marbled endleaves, top edges gilt. Vol. I, Containing Parts I and II. 'Of General Principles and of Truth', lxiii, 423; Vol. II containing Part III, Sections I and II, 'Of the Imaginative and Theoretic Faculties', xvi, 224; Vol. III containing Part IV, 'Of Many Things', xix, 348, with plates as called for; Vol. IV containing Part V, 'Of Mountain Beauty', xii, 411, with plates as called for; Vol. V completing the work and containing Parts VI, 'Of Leaf Beauty', VII 'Of Cloud Beauty', VIII 'Of Ideas of Relation ( Of Invention Formal )' IX' Of Ideas of Relation ( Of Invention Spiritual )', xvi, 384 pp.; Seven Lamps [xx], 205 pp. A fine and very handsome set, the spines panels mellowed to honey as typical the bindings strong, tight and beautifully preserved, the text-blocks and illustrations all in fine order AN IMPORTANT SET IN VERY PLEASING CONDITION, SIGNED BY RUSKIN AT THE END OF THE PREFACE TO THIS NEW EDITION. A difficult set to find so handsomely bound and in such nice and presentable condition. Ruskin began this work in 1843 at the tender age of 24 shortly after leaving Oxford, offering it as a defense of J. M. W. Turner, an accomplished landscape artist. The fifth and final volume was published in 1860, and it represented the last of Ruskin s works on art per se; his attention was subsequently turned more toward industrial problems, education, morals and religion. The set contains a vast profusion of magnificent plates from steel and wood engravings and a very fine index to this great work of Ruskin s. SEVEN LAMPS OF ARCHITECTURE IS ONE OF RUSKIN'S PRIMARY AND MOST FAMOUS BOOKS, HERE PRESENTED VERY HANDSOMELY BOUND. In this extensive essay Ruskin describes seven principles of architecture, which codified the contemporary thinking behind the Gothic Revival. He expresses the demands that architecture must meet in order to be good. It is an early work by the author, published during the time he was writing his famous series on modern painters. It helped to secure his reputation as the leading English art critic of the day, as well as being a showcase for his talents in drawing and engraving.

This five-volume work argued that art should focus on depicting nature with truth and sincerity.