Crashaw, Richard

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

Crashaw, Richard
Steps to the Temple. Sacred Poems, with other Delights of the Muses. London: by T.W. for Humphrey Moselet, and are to be sold at his shop at the Princes Armes in St. Pauls Churchyard, 1646
ink, paper, leather

12mo (6 1/4 x 3 1/4 ins.; 160 x 92 mm). Uncut, stitched in original plain wrappers, full deckle edges preserved; upper half of initial blank torn away, lower corner of G6 also, paper flaw to G1, but a very fine, crisp copy. Gilt morocco solander case.

Provenance

Winston H. Hagen (bookplate; The Anderson Galleries, 1918, lot 300) — John L. Clawson (bookplate; The Anderson Galleries, 1926, lot 176). acquisition: John F. Fleming

Literature

Wing C 6836; R13298; Grolier/Wither to Prior 232; Hayward 82.

Catalogue Note

First edition. The Hagen-Clawson copy, described in both sale catalogs as "matchless" and "pristine."

Forced into exile by the Puritans, Crashaw fled first to France and then to Italy. His years in Europe had a great impact on his poetry, the result being a distinct, high Baroque style in both his secular and devotional works. For a time, his lyricism was seen by many as second only to Donne.