Lamia. with Illustrative Designs by Will H. Low

Lamia, published in 1885 by J.B. Lippincott Company, serves as a high-water mark for the American Victorian gift book tradition. The volume presents John Keats’s narrative poem about the ill-fated romance between a serpent-woman and a mortal, interpreted through the aesthetic sensibilities of the Gilded Age. Its creation reflects a period when publishers invested heavily in elaborate physical craftsmanship to transform literary classics into decorative household artifacts.

The illustrative work was commissioned from Will Hicok Low, an American painter who had been deeply influenced by his training in Paris under Carolus-Duran. Low sought to translate Keats’s romanticism into a series of delicate, classicizing photogravures that emphasized grace and mythological idealism. Upon its release, the volume was widely lauded for its refined typography and the technical fidelity of its engravings, establishing Low as a prominent illustrator within the decorative arts movement.