A rather striking trio of Thomas Y. Crowell’s pocket-sized editions of English polymath, Pre-Raphaelite patron and cultural critic John Ruskin’s essays, aptly and attractively bound in Arts and Crafts style.
The Massachusetts-born sailor, binder and publisher, Thomas Y. Crowell (1836-1915) established his New York City publishing firm in 1876, after running a bindery under his name for six years in Boston. The address-less title pages (unusual for Crowell & Co.) date the volumes as being issued in the 1890s.
Full titles: Sesame and Lilies: 1. of Kings’ Treasuries, 2. Of Queens’ Gardens, 3. Of the Mystery of Life;
Ethics of Dust: Ten Lectures to Little Housewives on the Elements of Crystallisation;
The Crown of Wild Olive: Four Lectures on Work, Traffic, War, and The Future of England.
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