Irish Melodies. [Double Fore-Edge Painting].

MOORE, Thomas.

$1,500.00

Item Number: 146642

London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans., 1854.

Finely bound selection of lyrics set to Irish tunes. Duodecimo, bound in full morocco with gilt titles to the spine in five compartments within raised gilt bands, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, decorated with a concealed double fore-edge painting. In very good condition with light rubbing to the extremities, slight lean to the spine, light toning to the endpapers and margins, gift inscription to the front flyleaf, and a closed tear to the rear endpaper. Rare with an attractive double fore-edge painting. The term ‘fore-edge painting’ can refer to any painted decoration on the fore-edges of the leaves of a book, such as was not uncommon in the 15th and early 16th centuries, particularly in Italy. The term is most commonly used, however, for an English technique quite widely practiced in the second half of the 17th century in London and Edinburgh, and popularized in the 18th century by John Brindley and, in particular, Edwards of Halifax, whereby the fore-edge of the book, very slightly fanned out and then held fast, is decorated with painted views, or conversation pieces. The edges are then squared up and gilded in the ordinary way, so that the painting remains concealed while the book is closed: fan out the edges and it reappears. The technique was practiced by a few other English binders in the late 18th and 19th centuries, and a certain number of undoubted examples survive.

In the early years of his career, Moore's work was largely generic, but from 1806 to 1807, Moore dramatically changed his style of writing and focus, writing lyrics to a series of Irish tunes in the manner of Haydn's settings of British folksongs, with Sir John Andrew Stevenson as arranger of the music. The Melodies were an immediate success, and 'The Last Rose of Summer,' 'The Minstrel Boy,' 'Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms,' and 'Oft in the Stilly Night' became immensely popular. His close friend, the poet Lord Byron, said he knew them all "by rote and by heart," setting them above epics and Moore above all other poets for his "peculiarity of talent, or rather talents, – poetry, music, voice, all his own."