TIFITLWIW: The Golden Treasury

This is one of the biggest, loveliest old books I've ever seen and held. It's The Golden Treasury of Poetry and Prose, edited by Francis F. Browne and with an introduction by Richard Henry Stoddard (1883). It's probably a foot wide, a bit longer than that long and about 3-4 inches thick. And it has wonderful illustrations/engravings. Here are the pictures I took of it:

 

The gold parts are metallic and shiny. 

 

These are the authors. I think the signatures are pictures of their handwriting rather than actual physical autographs. Also, Francis F. Browne can get it. I'm totally submitting him to My Daguerreotype Boyfriend.

                           BOOKS.
I cannot think the glorious world of mind,
Embalmed in books, which I can only see
In patches, though I read my moments blind
        Is to be lost to me.

I have a thought that, as we live elsewhere,
So will those dear creations of the brain;
That what I lose unread, I'll find, and there
        Take up my joy again.

O then the bliss of blisses, to be freed
From all the wants by which the world is driven,
With liberty, and endless time to read
        The libraries of Heaven!
~Robert Leighton