Book of Gems The Poets and Artists of Great Britain. Edited by S. C. Hall. [ 2 volumes]. The Modern Poets and Artists of Great Britain. [1 volume]

London:: Saunders and Otley, 1836, 1837, 1838. FIRST EDITIONS. 3 volumes. 8vo, 210 x 131 mms., pp. xvi, 304 [305 - 308 facsimiles of poets' autographs]; xvi, 304 [305 - 308 facsimiles of poets' autographs]; xvi, 304 [305 - 308 facsimiles of poets' autographs], engraved title-pages, engraved vignettes and head-pieces throughout all three volumes, contemporary diced roan, spines ornately gilt in compartments, all edges gilt; lacks labels, but a very good set. Hall (1800 - 1889) was probably one of the busiest and most industrious authors, compilers, and editors of the 19th century. Peter Mandler in ODNB concludes his entry on Hall, with this observation: "And yet his life as a whole stands as a model of Victorian energy and uprightness, and his work as editor and animateur did much to popularize art and literature and thus to support the mass market for high culture so characteristic of the middle third of the nineteenth century." He was careful to use contemporary or recent artists for the illustrations - Constable, Gainsborough, Landseer, Reynolds. among others. To this one must add that he was also regarded as something of a prig with a high-mindedness that was more judgmental than practical; he was almost certainly the model for Mr. Pecksniff in Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit.