The Golden Gift: A Wreath of Gems From the Prose and Poetical Writers of England and America. Prepared Especially as A Gift Book for All Seasons. By Emily Percival. Boston: Phillips, Sampson, and Company. 1853. 288 pp, 8 x 6″, 8vo. In fair condition. Decorated leather boards normal scuffed at edges and worn/bumped at corners. Head of spine split at both front and rear hinges, binding exposed. Tail of spine rubbed. Leather spine scuffed and worn from normal shelf-wear; gilt deco dulled but still attractive. Intricate gilt deco on front and rear boards exhibits light rubbing (rear board shows more wear than front), however, book is still very presentable. All edges gilt. Gift inscription found on front end-page: “Presented to Ernest L. Baker. By His Mother on his 24 Birthday, May 17, 1889.” Light toning throughout text-block. Engraved plates exhibit foxing as well as tissue guards and adjacent pages. Binding intact. Please see photos. Hezekiah Wright Smith (1828-1890), engraver, born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1828. He came to New York with his family in 1833, and entered the establishment of an engraver, where he remained until his majority. He then passed two years with Thomas Doney, a mezzotint engraver, and in 1850 went to Boston and began to practise his profession, engraving a large number of plates for the publications of Ticknor and Field, and Little, Brown and Co. His most important plates are a full-length of Daniel Webster, after Chester Harding; a three-quarter length Edward Everett, after Moses Wright; and Washington, after Gilbert Stuart’s Athenamm head, this last being the best rendering of the picture that has yet been produced by the engraver. It was a labor of love with Mr. Smith, and to its completion he devoted all the leisure he could secure from his regular work during several years. His plates are executed in the dotted style, improperly called stipple, and most of his smaller portraits have considerable roulette work, giving them a mezzotint appearance. In 1870 he returned to New York, and in 1877 he moved to Philadelphia, where he remained until the beginning of April, 1879. COLI1853QFGB 05/24 – HK1569