Perfect and Imperfect Enjoyments. Poems by John Wilmot Earl of Rochester.

The Folio Society, London, 1992

Limited to 500 copies, numbered 441 in pencil and signed by Richard Shirley Smith on the justification page.

Description: Quarter bound oasis morocco with Cockerell hand-marbled paper sides, gilt title to spine. Quarto: 31 × 21.5 cm; pp. 109, [1]. Printed at the Stamperia Valdonega in Verona on Magnani mould-made paper. With 8 photolithographic plates Richard Shirley Smith.

Condition: Volume is near fine, with clean boards, straight corners without rubbing, missing the clamshell box. Internally clean and unmarked.

Notes: Richard Shirley Smith’s illustrations perfectly capture the wit, satire and philosophical undertones of Rochester’s poetry. Rooted in surrealism and classical influences, Smith’s style mirrors the poems’ oscillation between idealised desire and raw human failure. His dreamlike landscapes and figures inspired by commedia dell’arte echo Rochester’s mock-heroic tone. Smith’s classical allusions resonate with Rochester’s Epicurean reflections on the transience of pleasure, visually capturing the tension between the ‘perfect’ ideal and ‘imperfect’ reality. This synergy makes the illustrations a fitting visual accompaniment to Rochester’s provocative and philosophical libertinism.