THE SEASIDE AND THE FIRESIDE by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth - 1850

1850. [in the gift binding] Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1850. Original brown cloth elaborately stamped in gilt on the spine and both covers, all page edges gilt. First Edition, special gift binding, of this collection of verse best known for the trochaic ode "The Building of the Ship," which concludes with the famous apostrophe to the Federal Union, "Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!...". As described in detail by Blanck, copies were bound (without priority) in drab boards with printed spine label, in standard brown cloth, and also in "cloth gilt" or "cloth gilt, extra" -- one of which this is, with elaborate gilt designs on both covers and on the spine, and with page edges gilded. Blanck cites five colors of cloth used for both "gilt" bindings, but not this color -- brown. There is no preliminary ad catalogue in any of the "gilt" copies. The volume is unusually bright, in very good-plus condition (a bit of wear at the spine ends and at the lower fore-corners). With a January 1, 1850 presentation inscription (the book was actually published around December 20, 1849). Blanck 12099.