1919 "The Poetical Works of Robert Burns" Brown Full Leather Prize Binding Book

This 1919 edition of The Poetical Works of Robert Burns, published by Humphrey Milford at Oxford University Press and edited by J. Logie Robertson, brings together the poems of Scotland’s national bard in a handsome early 20th-century prize binding. It includes Burns’s best-known works along with notes, a glossary, and helpful reference material that made his Scots dialect more accessible to later readers.

Burns’s writing remains deeply appealing for its wit, warmth, and clear sense of place. His poems move easily from rural life and song to love, humor, and sharp social observation. This copy is especially appealing for its presentation binding, with brown leather boards, gilt decoration, a crest stamped on the front cover, and a 1923 Sedbergh School prize inscription that gives it added character and context.

[d]Author | Robert Burns [d]Editor | J. Logie Robertson, M.A. [d]Title | The Poetical Works of Robert Burns [d]Publisher | Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press [d]Date | 1919 [d]Binding | Brown leather prize binding, gilt tooling, gilt-stamped crest on front board, black spine label, marbled endpapers [d]Provenance | Sedbergh School prize award, dated 1923 [d]Origin | England [d]Place of Publication | London [d]Language | English

[condition] The volume is generally well preserved. The leather boards show minor scuffing but retain a pleasant patina, and the gilt crest and tooling remain distinct. The hinges are solid and the binding secure. Internally, there is light foxing and toning on the pages, consistent with a book of this period, but the text is clean and fully readable throughout. The prize inscription and bookplate on the front endpapers are present and legible. An attractive and well-maintained example of an early twentieth-century prize binding.