Pepita of the Pagoda. HOPKINS (Tighe).

First Edition. 8vo. [166 x 103 x 17 mm]. 208pp. Bound c.1909 by Mudie (signed in gilt on the front turn-in) of red calf, the covers tooled in gilt with a roll border and a long leafy stem issuing from a small pagoda in the lower inner corners, the front cover lettered with the title and with a small "ED" monogram. Smooth spine tooled to match the front, the turn-ins and inside joints tooled with a gilt roll, silk doublures and endleaves, gilt and gauffered edges. (Joints and spine slightly rubbed and a few minor marks).
Bristol: J.W. Arrowsmith, [1897].

There is a manuscript poem beginning "At the Pagoda, night by night" bound in at the front. It is dedicated to Muriel F. Darrock, 15th Jan.1909, and is signed with a monogram "ED" (E. Darrock?). The same monogram appears on the front cover, indicating that the poet was also responsible for the design of the binding, which was executed by Mudie.

Charles Mudie established a stationary and bookselling business in Bloomsbury in 1840. Within a couple of years he was lending books to students at the University of London, and branches of his circulating library were established in other cities, inlcuding York, Manchester and Birmingham. Their 1877 catalogue advertises the sale of "Works of the Best Authors in Ornamental Bindings, well adapted for Gentlemen's Libraries and Drawing-room Tables, and for Wedding and Birthday Presents and School Prizes". By 1908 the catalogue advertises "the lowest prices, the best workmanship and materials" and the Royal Library at Windsor has the original of Queen Alexandra's Christmas Gift Book for 1908 which is in a very elaborate purple leather binding by Mudie.

Stock no. ebc3439