Beschreibung:

RUSKIN, John (1819-1900). Notes on the Construction of Sheepfolds . London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1851. 8° (218 x 137mm). Advertisement leaf at end. (Title and final leaf lightly browned, neat tear at upper inner margin of one leaf, partially unstitched). Unbound, in blue cloth portfolio. Provenance : John Ruskin (title inscription) -- purchased from the Baker Sale, 5 December 1941, lot 258, $14. RUSKIN'S INSCRIBED AND ANNOTATED COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION. Title inscribed, 'Mine - JR.', and with a quotation from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Casa Guidi Windows (1851); four leaves with marginal annotations. RUSKIN'S OWN WORKING COPY WITH FASCINATING ANNOTATIONS LINKING HIS CONCERNS WITH THOSE OF ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. Ruskin's essay, which presents his opinions and proposals relating to the definition of Church and authority of the clergy, is allied in this copy at various points with Casa Guidi Windows . His inscription on the title is a quotation from p.65 (1851 edition) of Browning's politcal poem, 'I believe In one priest, and one temple, with its floors of shining jasper... "so far the porphry. then, the flint."'. Inscribed on p.23, where Ruskin discusses the notion of priesthood, are Browning's words, 'Priests, priests! &c'. from 'p. 117. Casa Guidi Windows'. His manuscript additions on p. 31 relate to 'first how St John speaks of his "little children"', with quotations from I John 2: chapters 18, 20 & 21. RUSKIN, J. The Elements of Drawing . London: 1857. 8° (188 x 120mm). Including publisher's catalogue at end. Original green cloth by Westleys & Co, with binder's label (head of spine slightly worn). RUSKIN'S GIFT TO HIS MOTHER, with his bookplate inside upper cover, his mother's inscription, 'Margaret Ruskin May 26th 1857,' on half-title. Exhibited : The Grolier Club (1950s exhibition label). RUSKIN, J. The Nature of Gothic: A Chapter of the Stones of Venice . Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1892. Small 4° (200 x 135mm). Preface by William Morris Golden type, full-page border and diagrams in text. Green morocco gilt by Sangorski and Sutcliffe dated 1904 (upper cover detached). ONE OF 500 COPIES ON PAPER at 30 shillings. At Oxford Morris had been particularly struck by this one chapter in The Stones of Venice , and in the preface to his own Kelmscott edition he explains the enormous impact which it originally had on him. 'To some of us when we first read it ... it seemed to point out a new road on which the world should travel.' Sparling 4. (3)