TIGHE (MARY)
Psyche, or The Legend of Love, FIRST EDITION, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY TO THE PAINTER JAMES BARRY, inscribed on title-page 'To James Barry Esq., from M Tighe 1805', wide margins, title slightly stained at foot, contemporary green straight-grained morocco, sides gilt ruled and panelled, with floral corner-pieces and outer border, agate on-lays to each cover, spine in five separate compartments with raised bands, tooled and lettered in gilt and blind, gilt clasp set with gems, very light rubbing to foot of spine, gilt turn-ins, yellow watered silk endpapers, g.e., housed in a contemporary velvet-lined, gilt-tooled diced russia box, with gilt lettering on spine, rubbed, to joints split [P.R. Feldman and B.C. Cooney, Collected Poetry of Mary Tighe, p. 590, citing this copy], 16mo (250 x 94mm.), [C. Whittingham for James Carpenter], 1805
Footnotes:
A SEMINAL WORK OF IRISH ROMANTICISM INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR IN AN EXQUISITE OPULENT CONTEMPORARY BINDING.

According to Paula Feldman, joint editor of The Collected Poetry of Mary Tighe, the binding is far more ornate than any of the other copies she has examined, and is especially unusual for the addition of the Wedgwood style cameo, ornate metal lock, semi-precious stones, and agate onset, which she believes may have been added by a subsequent owner to the original binding and endpapers especially commissioned by the author.

Irish poet Mary Tighe (1772-1810) '...was a crucial force in shaping British Romanticism. With remarkable vitality and virtuosity, her poetry engaged the central issues of the period, often in advance of writers now considered canonical, and commanded the attention and respect of her contemporaries.... These poems demonstrate the technical virtuosity with which Tighe movingly wrote about the tensions between love and loss, duty and desire, the spiritual and the sensuous, loyalty and betrayal, nation and family, the Irish and the British, and much more, while struggling with debilitating illness...' (Paula R. Feldman & Brian C. Cooney, The Collected Poetry of Mary Tighe, 2016, p.1).

Tighe published only one work in her lifetime, Psyche; or, the Legend of Love, which was put out in a private edition of fifty copies for the benefit of family and friends in 1805. However, whilst having many admirers amongst her literary circle (including Thomas Moore, Joseph Cooper Walker and the Ladies of Llangollen) it was the posthumous publication of Psyche, with Other Poems, in 1811 and in several later editions, that made her name widely known and established her literary reputation.

The decorative on-lay on the upper cover is a copy of a Wedgwood design by John Flaxman of 1776 depicting a procession of putti guiding the bound and draped Cupid and Psyche to their wedding. Here, however, one figure on the far right hand-side has been omitted. The decorative on-lay on the lower board is a cameo of a female figure in profile, possibly the author herself. Although the binding is unsigned, according to Philippa Marks of the British Library, it can be attributed to the workshop of Rodwell, Golden Square, London. In fact, the British Library holds a copy of a work by Juan de Flores (G102030) with a binding signed by Rodwell which is characterised by identical floral corner pieces to those on this book (Law, E., 'Psyche: or the Legend of Love, 1805', Old Kilkenny Review, 65 (2013), p.45).

For a manuscript notebook of her poems, see our Women Through History sale on 23rd March 2022, lot 153.
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