Golden Treasury Palgrave 1885 Macmillan Poetry Anthology
 
Bibliographic Details
The Golden Treasury of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language, selected and arranged with notes by Francis Turner Palgrave, late Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. Published by Macmillan and Co., London, and printed by R. Clay, Sons, and Taylor, Bread Street Hill, London, 1885.
This is a later nineteenth-century issue of Palgrave's celebrated anthology, rather than the original 1861 first edition. The Golden Treasury was one of Macmillan's best-known small-format literary series, uniformly printed in 18mo with steel-engraved vignette titles. 
Part of the Golden Treasury Series.
 
Historical & Bibliographic Context
First published in 1861, The Golden Treasury became one of the most influential Victorian anthologies of English lyric poetry. Palgrave selected poems according to his own carefully stated principles, seeking what he regarded as the finest examples of lyrical poetry rather than attempting an exhaustive survey.
The collection is divided into four books corresponding broadly to successive periods of English poetry, from the Elizabethan and Jacobean writers through Milton, the eighteenth century and the Romantic period. Within each section, Palgrave deliberately avoided a rigid chronological arrangement, instead grouping poems according to feeling and subject.
The anthology was closely associated with Alfred, Lord Tennyson, to whom the first edition was dedicated. Modern scholarship has documented Tennyson's involvement in the formation and selection of the anthology. 
By 1885 the book had passed through numerous printings, demonstrating the extraordinary popularity and longevity of Palgrave's selection. The 1885 issue belongs to this established Golden Treasury tradition rather than representing a new edition of the work. 
 
About the Editor
Francis Turner Palgrave (1824–1897) was an English poet, critic, anthologist and educationalist. He worked for the Education Department and became Professor of Poetry at Oxford in 1885. His enduring literary reputation rests chiefly upon The Golden Treasury. 
 
About the Illustration
The volume has a vignette title page engraved on steel and protected by a tissue guard, characteristic of Macmillan's Golden Treasury Series. Contemporary Macmillan catalogues describe the series as 18mo volumes with vignette titles engraved on steel. 
 
Binding & Exterior Description
Attractively presented in green cloth over the boards and spine, with gilt borders to the front board and spine, circular gilt decoration to the upper board, gilt lettering to the spine and blind-stamped borders to the rear board.
The binding remains intact and robust, with light age-related wear including very small areas of fading, light marks, soft corner bumping and rubbing to the corners and edges. There is light rubbing along the long edges of the spine.
 
Interior Condition
Brown endpapers and pastedowns with very lightly tanned text pages. The top page edges show some light foxing when the book is closed, while the pages themselves remain predominantly neat and clean, with only occasional very light marks.
There are occasional untrimmed page edges and very occasional small edge tears, none affecting the text. The pages are predominantly uncreased and there are no pen or pencil ownership marks.
There is one extremely light gutter crack between pp. 256 and 257, but the text block remains secure.
 
Physical Details
Uniformly printed in 18mo, a characteristic pocket-sized format of the Golden Treasury Series.
346 pages, followed by four pages of Macmillan's publisher's catalogue.
Approximately 16.1 × 11.1 × 2.2 cm. Weight approximately 285g.
 
Completeness
All 346 pages are present and checked, together with the four-page publisher's catalogue. The illustrated title page is present with its tissue guard.
 
Collector Summary
A charming nineteenth-century Macmillan edition of one of the most influential English poetry anthologies, edited by Francis Turner Palgrave. Its compact 18mo format, decorated green cloth and steel-engraved vignette title make it a particularly appealing example of the classic Golden Treasury Series.