£30
PRESENTATION COPY, 8vo, pp. xi, [i], 174. Contemporary pebble-grain green morocco, boards bordered in blind, spine lettered in gilt between raised bands and blind rules, board edges and turn-ins gilt, edges gilt. Paper lightly age-toned, one or two minor spots. Spine lightly sunned, joints, endcaps and bands a little rubbed. Inscribed on the second front flyleaf ‘Alex. Mackintosh Esqr with the affectionate regards of the Author. Wm. Fredk. Rock, 15/7/79’.
The second edition of Rock's poems; the first having been privately printed for presentation a decade earlier, the author writes that he had 'since had many solicitations for further copies, and I almost feel bound to meet this complimentary applications by a reprint' (Preface). Rock (1802-1890) left banking to become a publisher, selling steel engravings and fancy stationery, making enough money to found the Barnstaple Literary and Scientific Institution and the North Devon Athenæum, to which he left much of his collections.
