Martin (John) [The Paradise Lost of Milton], calligraphic manuscript title in pen and black ink that reads 'Mezzotint Collection/ Engraved/ by/ John Martin/ London/ 1829', with set of 24 mezzotints with touches of drypoint and fully worked up by a contemporary expert hand with watercolour and gouache, plates with tissue guards and additional blanks, a composite set of early impressions, 11 plates lettered with caption "Proof", without any text leaves, each sheet approx. 340 x 250 mm (13 3/8 x 9 3/4 in), trimmed within the platemarks, some marginal foxing or surface dirt and toning, image areas largely unaffected, bound in full navy-blue levant morocco decoratively tooled in gilt, raised spine bands, morocco doublures elaborately ruled & tooled in gilt, moiré silk free endpapers, all edges gilt, some light fading to fore edge, joints lightly worn, front hinge strengthened, folio, Septimus Prowett, [c. 1824-27].

Literature: cf. Campbell & Wees, 1992, nos. 26-49.

⁂ Sumptuous, probably unique, copy with exceptionally fine contemporary hand-coloured mezzotints. When first released, the original mezzotints were greeted with outstanding critical acclaim - the critic for The Literary Gazette proclaimed: "we know no artist, whose genius so perfectly fitted him being the illustrator of the mighty Milton; and in what we have seen of his conceptions he has more than realised the highest of our hopes. There is a wildness, a grandeur, and a mystery about his designs which are indescribably fine:- the painter is also a poet. ... we look upon these engravings to belong to the foremost order of true genius: beyond this there is no praise." [The Literary Gazette, April 2nd 1825].