Isabella (1800s) By John orders Keats, Published by Collins Clear-Type Press, pocketbook, poetry

This stunning pocket book (undated) is from around the mid to late 1800s. 'Isabella' or the Pot of Basil, written by John Keats in 1818, was adapted from a story in Boccaccio's Decameron. The poem was popular with Pre-Raphaelite painters and was the inspiration for a painting by William Holman Hunt titled 'Isabella and the Pot of Basil'.

This pocket book is beautifully decorated and illustrated. The cover has an image of Isabella holding a pot of basil in a circular frame, with decorative foliage orders bordering the picture. The end pages are marbled and two of the central images on the inside pages before the title page (pictured) are stuck on, not printed on the pages. The book also has the poems Old Meg, Fancy, and others.

This pocket book is in very good condition. The pages are clean and bright and there are no inscriptions or markings. The spine is intact, but a small section of the paper on the spine has peeled slightly. The book was published by Collins Clear-Type Press. It measures 11.5cms x 15cms.

A rare book.