{"product_id":"poems-robert-crompton-1st-edition","title":"Poems, Robert Crompton — 1st Edition (1\/100 Print Run)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublication:\u003c\/b\u003e Liverpool, Walter Henry Peat, 1866\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormatting:\u003c\/b\u003e 8vo, pp. viii, 210.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition Report\u003c\/b\u003e Good. The original green blind-stamped cloth boards remain structurally sound, though they exhibit moderate shelf-wear, rubbing to the extremities, and minor fraying at the spine ends. The gilt lettering and ornate tooling on the spine have survived remarkably well, remaining bright and unoxidised. Internally, the volume shows its age and a fragile binding history; the inner hinges have been historically reinforced with red cloth tape to maintain stability. The text block is secure but features scattered foxing and age-toning throughout, alongside a rather pronounced dampstain affecting the upper gutter and inner margins of the preliminary leaves, including the frontispiece and title page. The front endpapers bear a standard previous owner's bookplate alongside two vintage photographic prints affixed to the pastedown and flyleaf. A characterful and robust survivor of an exceptionally fragile production.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCatalogue Note\u003c\/b\u003e First edition. A volume of extraordinary scarcity, strictly limited to a microscopic print run of just 100 copies. This provincial collection of verse features a fine engraved frontispiece portrait of the author and is most notable for its prominent printed dedication: \"By permission, to England's greatest novelist, Charles Dickens.\" Robert Crompton was a well-regarded local literary figure, journalist, and dramatist in the Bootle and Liverpool area who possessed significant theatrical ties, notably performing alongside Henry Irving.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe volume's provenance includes the bookplate of Bessie Cockburn, supplemented by curious Victorian-era printed illustrations tipped into the preliminary leaves. Entirely absent from the current open market and lacking from contemporary auction records, this represents a genuinely rare piece of regional Dickensiana and Victorian provincial poetry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA fascinating artefact of 19th-century provincial literature, Robert Crompton's \u003ci\u003ePoems\u003c\/i\u003e offers a vivid window into the vibrant literary circles of Victorian Liverpool. Crompton, a talented local dramatist and journalist, distils his varied experiences into this collection of verse. Most remarkably, the work bears a proud printed dedication to Charles Dickens, a testament to the far-reaching influence of the era's greatest literary celebrity on regional writers. Surviving against the odds due to an exceptionally small print run of just 100 copies, this volume is both a tribute to a forgotten Bootle author and a truly scarce piece of Victorian literary history.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Broadhursts Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54577345691987,"sku":"5071","price":500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0960\/1469\/6787\/files\/20260811_104012.jpg?v=1786620850","url":"https:\/\/broadhurstsbooks.com\/products\/poems-robert-crompton-1st-edition","provider":"Broadhursts Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}