[Fine Binding | Rose Lazier] Letters of John Keats to Fanny Brawne

Keats, John. Letters of John Keats to Fanny Brawne Written in the Years 1819 and 1820. New York: George Broughton and Barclay Dunham / The Calumet Press, 1901. The silhouette portrait of Fanny Brawne has been bound in as the frontispiece (rather than facing p. 1), while the portrait of Keats has been bound in facing p. 32 (rather than as frontispiece). Limited to 50 copies printed on Japan vellum, of which this is #15, initialed “B.D.” in the colophon. (There were another 250 copies on handmade paper, and 700 copies on "special deckle edge paper".)

Bound in full plum crushed morocco by Rose Lazier (signed on the rear doublure), covers with gilt fillet border and small inlaid green roundels, enclosing a tall central gilt diapered panel, front cover with a dark green inlaid reserve with the title lettered in gilt. Corners with dark green inlaid forms, overlaid with gilt flowering vine sprays, leaves, and flowers. Four bands to spine, the compartments with upper and lower compartments featuring a corresponding inlaid and gilt ornament. Wide turn-ins with gilt ruling, inlaid green roundels, and interlaced gilt tooling on a stylized flower at corners, framing marbled pastedowns. Marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. Some minor rubbing to edges and corners, spine slightly faded along with ~2" of upper rear cover.

Rose Lazier was a Philadelphia-based bookbinder who trained under Sangorski & Sutcliffe, and was a member of the Guild of Bookworkers from 1910-1918. She is also noted as an exhibitor with the National Society of Craftsmen in their eighth exhibition (Art and Progress, January 1915): "The bookbinders have a small but excellent exhibit, the noticeable work being by Edith Diehl, Rose Lazier and Harvey Chatfield."