1849 Edgar Allan Poe 1st Edition of Bells Union Magazine (Sartain) Volumes 4 & 5

  

Sartain's Union Magazine of Literature & Art. Philadelphia: John Sartain & Co. Fine decorated full leather binding measures 10 x 6.25, 8vo. Volume IV: Features early printing of A Valentine by Edgar Allan Poe, Page 173. Volume V: Features first printing of The Bells by Edgar Allan Poe, Page 304.

Boards scuffed at edges and worn/bumped at corners. Head and tail of spine scuffed. Front hinge cracked with binding exposed at head & tail.

Spine shows a bit of desiccation; raised bands rubbed. Top compartment of spine exhibits tear starting at rear hinge.

Gilt lettering and deco normally dulled/soiled, but overall attractive and all legible. All edges of text-block gilt. Old-hand ownership signature, in ink, on top edge of front end-page: "Martha McCully 1881".

Text-blocks exhibit toning and age-staining, especially in margins around plates. Most tissue guards are age-stained with creasing or tearing; some tissue guards are lacking. Three detached plates preceding page 390 of Volume IV with chipping around all edges.

Please see photos and ask questions, if any, before purchasing. It is perhaps best known for the repetitive use of the word "bells". The poem has four parts to it; each part becomes darker and darker as the poem progresses from "the jingling and the tinkling" of the bells in part 1 to the "moaning and the groaning" of the bells in part 4. A Valentine was originally printed in the Evening Mirror in 1846 under the title To Her Whose Name is Written Below. RAREA1849FNOX - 09/25 - HK2677.