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1849 ORACLES FROM THE BRITISH POETS
First Edition | Victorian Parlour Game | Original Gilt Cloth | Westleys Binder’s Ticket
SMITH, James. Oracles from the British Poets: A Drawing Room Table Book and Pleasant Companion for a Round Party. London: Henry Washbourne, 1849. First edition. Small octavo, 175 pages.
A scarce and charming Victorian literary amusement, designed not simply as a poetry anthology but as an interactive drawing-room oracle game.
The book allowed readers to consult numbered poetic extracts for playful answers, predictions, conversation, and social entertainment. It belongs to the world of Victorian parlour games, drawing-room amusements, literary gift books, fortune-telling books, keepsakes, and domestic social rituals.
This copy is especially appealing in its original gilt-decorated publisher’s cloth, retaining both a Westleys & Co. binder’s ticket and a Forbes & Knibb bookseller’s label from Southampton.
THE BOOK
The subtitle, A Drawing Room Table Book and Pleasant Companion for a Round Party, captures the intended use of the volume.
Rather than being read solely from beginning to end, the book was designed for shared consultation during gatherings, parties, and informal entertainments. Participants could turn to the numbered poetic selections and use them as playful oracular responses to questions, circumstances, and social conversation.
The result is an unusual combination of:
• Poetry anthology
• Parlour game
• Drawing-room amusement
• Literary fortune-telling book
• Victorian gift book
• Domestic social document
Selections are drawn from major British poets, including Shakespeare, Byron, Wordsworth, and others. Familiar poetry is transformed into a form of genteel social play, allowing verse to be consulted, performed, shared, and enjoyed within the Victorian home.
A contemporary notice in Notes and Queries praised the work as “a good idea carried out with excellent taste.” Later advertisements indicate that the title reached at least a third and fourth edition, confirming that it found a contemporary audience.
This is the desirable 1849 first edition.
VICTORIAN PARLOUR CULTURE
Oracles from the British Poets offers a fascinating glimpse into the literary culture of the mid-nineteenth-century drawing room.
During the Victorian period, books were frequently designed not only for private reading but also for social use. Conversation games, literary albums, keepsakes, gift books, fortune-telling amusements, and poetic miscellanies all occupied an important place in domestic entertainment.
This volume preserves a particularly unusual form of literary play. It demonstrates how poetry could function as an instrument of chance, conversation, performance, amusement, and social interaction.
The book will appeal to collectors of Victorian literature, parlour games, oracle books, decorative publisher’s cloth, gift books, and nineteenth-century domestic history.
ORIGINAL DECORATIVE CLOTH
The volume remains in its original publisher’s ochre-brown cloth binding.
The upper cover features a bright gilt central urn or vase device within an arched gilt frame, surrounded by floral corner ornaments and ruled borders.
The design is especially appropriate to the book’s role as a drawing-room table book: decorative, literary, and intended for polite domestic display.
Binding features include:
• Original ochre-brown publisher’s cloth
• Gilt-stamped central urn device
• Gilt floral corner ornaments
• Gilt ruled and arched borders
• Original, unrebacked decorative binding
• Binder’s ticket of Westleys & Co., London
• Bookseller’s label of Forbes & Knibb, Southampton
The Westleys & Co. binder’s ticket and Forbes & Knibb label add attractive book-trade interest, connecting the volume with both the London binding trade and the provincial retail book trade of mid-Victorian England.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Author: James Smith
Title: Oracles from the British Poets
Subtitle: A Drawing Room Table Book and Pleasant Companion for a Round Party
Place: London
Publisher: Henry Washbourne
Date: 1849
Edition: First edition
Format: Small octavo, approximately 16 cm
Pagination: 175 pages
Binding: Original gilt-decorated publisher’s cloth
Binder’s ticket: Westleys & Co., London
Bookseller’s label: Forbes & Knibb, Southampton
CONDITION
Very Good overall for an 1849 decorative cloth book.
The original ochre-brown cloth remains attractive and presentable. The gilt decoration on the upper board remains bright and clearly defined, including the central urn device, floral ornament, and surrounding border.
There is expected rubbing, light soiling, and minor surface wear to the cloth, together with softening and wear at the spine ends and corners. The head of the spine has small areas of fraying or loss. The board edges show light wear and minor handling marks.
The binding remains sound, attached, and displayable.
The interior is generally clean, with light age toning and scattered signs of use appropriate to the period. The Westleys & Co. binder’s ticket and Forbes & Knibb bookseller’s label are present.
Please examine all photographs carefully, as they form an important part of the condition description.
COLLECTOR APPEAL
This unusual first edition will appeal to collectors of:
• Victorian poetry
• Parlour games and drawing-room amusements
• Oracle and fortune-telling books
• Literary gift books
• Decorative publisher’s cloth
• Victorian domestic social history
• British book-trade history
• Bookseller’s labels and binder’s tickets
• Nineteenth-century ephemera and popular culture
A rare and appealing Victorian artifact, equal parts poetry anthology, parlour game, literary oracle, decorative gift book, and social document, preserved in an attractive original gilt cloth binding with important period book-trade labels.
