[Rarebooks] fa: DE COVERLY BINDING: Deane's WORSHIP OF THE SERPENT (w/ Art Nouveau snake on the spine)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, May 13. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/bo95yaa

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Rev. John Bathurst Deane: The Worship of the Serpent Traced Throughout the World: Attesting the Temptation and Fall of Man by the Instrumentality of a Serpent Tempter. London: J. G. & F. Rivington, 1833. Second edition, considerably enlarged. Tall 8vo (22.5 cm); xiv + 475 + [1] pp.; six engraved plates (two folding), and  in-text woodcuts.

Deane's landmark study of snake worship in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and America, sumptuously rebound by ROGER DE COVERLY, whose name is discreetly stamped in gilt on the front turn-in. Full nineteenth-century green levant morocco; the spine with gilt-stamped titles and an elaborately-tooled serpent; front and rear covers with single-ruled borders and ornate gilt turn-ins; marbled endpapers; page edges gilt. De Coverly was one of the most respected of nineteenth-century English bookbinders. A student of Zaehsdorf and a mentor to Cobden-Sanderson, his bindings are rarer and, arguably, more sought-after than those produced by either. The present example is an uncommonly bold and whimsical design for de Coverly, who usually worked in a more classical style.

Spine and edges sunned to a mellow brown, small impression to the front cover, a touch of rubbing to the top of the rear joint; light age-toning to the plates, one folding plate with a couple of spots; otherwise contents are very clean and fresh in a superb binding. A unique copy.