Summary

Leather bound book 'Lara', a tale by Lord Byron. Written in 1814, this edition with illustrations by C B Birch was published by The Art Union of London in 1879.

The sixth Baron Byron, George Gordon Byron - generally known simply as 'Lord Byron' (1788-1824) - was a leading British poet of the early nineteenth century and a prominent figure in the British Romantic movement. He was a prolific writer and is still regarded as one of the great figures of British literature. He died at the relatively young age of 36, after having contracted a fever while serving in the Greek War of Independence (1821-1832).

The Great Britain Court at the Melbourne International Exhibition was the largest in the entire exhibition. Arranged in the central annexe and nave of the Exhibition Building were displays of pottery, porcelain, decorative objects and fancy goods, books, prints and stationery, furniture, carpets and paper-hangings, carriages, weighing machines and industrial hardware and raw and processed goods. The exhibits were collectively estimated to value one quarter of a million pounds.

The display of British books and stationery was particularly impressive. 'Books in glass cases and on shelves, maps on partitions, pens laid out in circles and diamonds on tables, packets of envelopes and notepaper enclosed in glass, and great webs of newspaper in rolls, occupy a strip of the British court', the Argus Exhibition Supplement wrote. 'The books are not placed there to be read, few even to be handled. Most of the volumes are beautifully bound. If they lie open, it is to show how clearly they are printed, on excellent paper, and how capitally they are illustrated.'

Physical Description

Red leather bound book 'Lara' by Lord Byron with illustrations by C B Birch. Published by Art Union of London 1879.

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