The Marble Faun, or The Romance of Monte Beni

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1899. First Edition Thus. Both volumes of this complete set are in fine condition in their original bindings of white cloth with gilt text on the spines and with beautiful Art Nouveau designs on the boards. The top edges of the text blocks are gilt. Both volumes are 16mos of 6 5/8 by 4 1/2 inches and both are covered with their original, very good+ red, cloth dust jackets with the faint remnants of gilt titles stamped on the spine areas. Both volumes are contained within their original cloth covered slip case which is in very good condition with the original printed paper title missing. Volume I contains 253 pages of text and is illustrated with a frontispiece from an engraving of Hawthorne and 24 plates of reproductions of earlier works of art. Volume II contains 259 pages of text and is illustrated with a frontispiece and 22 plates from black and white photographs and reproductions of earlier works of art. The most striking element of this set is the decorations which appear on the boards by Sarah Wyman Whitman in the Art Nouveau style. As pointed out in Lowell Thing's book: Cover Treasure The Life and Art of Margaret Armstrong, this title is "One of Whitman's most famous cover designs and one of only eight covers that she signed with one of her two monograms." (Thing: Cover Treaure, p.35) These two volumes show a small gilt stamp on the lower edge of the rear boards.