Leather Bound Books

London: Tinsley Brothers, 1867. 3 volume set, 9 inches tall. A very handsome binding by Bayntun Riviere with gilt raised bands, regal gilt centre tools and gilt top edges. Armorial bookplate. Extra-Illustrated with 30 fine engraved illustrations, 10 of which are hand coloured. One of the most active and crucial reigns of all the British Monarchs covering many great events at home but also the American War of Independence and the French Revolution.

Oxford, The University Press, 1843. Full morocco, 6 inches tall. A pristine and very good looking early Victorian full morocco with raised bands and extra gilt tooling to the panels and fine gilt and blind panels to the boards. Gilt dentelles and all edges.

London: Edward Moxon, 1836. 2 volume set, 8 inches tall. Neat half later morocco bindings by Birdsall with gilt raised bands, smart gilt tooling framing the boards and gilt top edges. Charles Lamb was at the heart of a literary circle in the early 19th century along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, William Wordsworth, Dorothy Wordsworth and William Hazlitt, he was described by his biographer E. V. Lucas as "the most lovable figure in English literature".

London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1909. Half morocco, 8 3/4 inches tall. A superb half morocco binding by Asprey with gilt raised bands, appropriate gilt centre tools within smart gilt framed panels and gilt top edge. Embellished with a colour frontispiece and 51 half-tone plates. A thorough and nostalgic history of drinking and drinking culture in England going back to ancient times.

London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1907. Half morocco, 8 3/4 inches tall. A superb half morocco binding by Asprey with gilt raised bands, appropriate gilt centre tools within smart gilt framed panels and gilt top edge. Considerable foxing. Embellished with a colour frontispiece and 5 further colour plates and 32 half-tone plates. A thorough and nostalgic history of sport in England going back to ancient times.

London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1911. Half morocco, 8 3/4 inches tall. A superb half morocco binding by Asprey with gilt raised bands, appropriate gilt centre tools within smart gilt framed panels and gilt top edge. Embellished with a colour frontispiece and further black and white plates throughout. A thorough and nostalgic history of food and drink in England going back to ancient times.

London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1873. Full Calf, 7 3/4 inches tall. A splendid Victorian tree calf binding by Riviere with gilt raised bands, contrasting red label and fine dense gilt tooling to the panels. With a Harrow School prize book plate on the front paste down end paper. A fine copy of this great Roman epic poem, translated into English verse.

London: John Lane The Bodely Head Limited, 1922. Quarter morocco, 11 1/2 inches tall. A pristine quarter morocco by Asprey with gilt raised bands, nautical centre tools and top edge. Illustrated with 21 superb woodcuts. Limted to 75 copies printed on Japon vellum and signed by the artist, this example being number 52. Some foxing and marks to the original endpapers which are bound in. A superb copy of this evocative work.

Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1849 - 1850. 15 volume set, 9 inches tall. Superb Victorian full calf bound by Zaehnsdorf, with gilt raised bands, triple labels in red, black and green, and superb gilt tooling. With the armorial bookplate of Allan Harvey Drummond. Some marks and superficial loss to a long defunct insect to some boards, and some foxing to several plates, but overall in wonderful condition. Sir Archibald Alison's great history consists of 14 volumes plus a uniformly bound Atlas, which contains all 108 maps. The Atlas volume is 11 inches deep. With portraits. These 15 volumes cover the Commencement of the French Revolution in 1789 to the Restoration of the Bourbons in 1815'. This set is complete as it was first published. It was continued some years later (See our other set).

London: Nattali and Bond, 1831. 2 volume set, 6 1/2 inches tall. A charming and very scarce work describing a critical period in the history of Paris. Smartly bound in half morocco with a title label and dense gilt tooling on a smooth back. Embellished with a folding map of Paris, 13 engraved views and 26 wood-cuts. Armorial bookplates. Some foxing. This history contains an account of the revolution of 1789; the Tuileires, the Massacre of St Batholomew, Sieges of Paris and the Louvre.

London: J. Dick c. 1810. Half morocco, 7 inches tall. A very smart slightly later binding by Maclehose of Glasgow, with raise bands, blind pallets and gilt title and top edge. This obscure work lists various characters of G(lasgow), giving a satirical description of each. At the rear a manuscript list has been bound in with a key naming all 23 of the characters opposite their true names. A unique copy of a very scarce work.

Edinburgh: Cadell & Co. and London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green, 1827. 9 volume set, 7 1/2 inches tall. A lovely William IV half pink calf binding with gilt raised bands and delicate gilt tooling to the panels, The second edition, published in the same year as the first. Sporadic light foxing. A splendid set of this great biography by the most popular novelist and historian of the period.

London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1831. 3 volume set, 8 1/2 inches tall. A plain but handsome half calf binding with raised bands and twin maroon labels. Lord Canning held senior cabinet posts before becoming Prime Minister in 1827, he also famously fought a duel with Lord Castlereagh, causing outrage that two cabinet ministers had resorted to such a method.

Bordeaux: Chez les Freres Labottiere, 1785. Full morocco, 4 3/4 inches tall. A very finely bound almanac with gilt bands and panels around floral centre tools on a smooth back, a gilt fillet and wide floral roll frame the boards, dentelles and all edges gilt. There is a crease to the leather on the upper board and faint ink stains on the lower. A scarce almanac from just before the French Revolution printed for the Guienne (or Guyenne) region, the old French province which corresponded roughly to the Roman province of Aquitania Secunda and the archdiocese of Bordeaux. Following the French Revolution, the province became the departments of Gironde, Lot-et-Garonne, Dordogne, Lot, Aveyron and much of Tarn-et-Garonne. An exceptionally clean copy in the original French.

Paris: Chez Antoine Boudet. Nicolas Desaint. Avignon : Chez François-Barthelemi Merande. 1767-1773. 17 volume set 10 1/2 inches tall. A magnificent edition in full 18th century French mottled roan with gilt raised bands, contrasting orange and green labels and elegant gilt tooled panels. Pink speckled edges. Embellished with 33 engraved plates (some folding) plus 6 letterpress tables (some folding). From the Library of Madame de Simiane, collected by her at the Chateau de Cirey, but without her bookplates. An exceptionally handsome set in superb condition..

London: John Murray, 1831. Half calf, 6 inches tall. A delightful little William IV half calf with gilt raised bands and delicate gilt tooling to the panels. Engraved frontispiece, further engraved portrait and folding genealogical table. An interesting work describing the family, wives, ministers and generals of Napoleon.

Paris: Chez Ant. Aug. Renouard, 1812. Half calf, 5 1/2 inches tall. A charming little English provincial binding with the binder's ticket of Tomkinson of Uttoxeter (see Charles Ramsden's Book Binders of the United Kingdom, page 164). With gilt bands, label and extra gilt panels on a smooth back. 2 pages of prints. In the original French.

London: Cadell et al., 1841-1846. 17 volume set, 8 3/4 inches tall. A magnificent Victorian full calf with gilt raised bands, twin labels and very fine, dense and bright gilt tooling to the panels. Twin gilt fillets frame the boards. Portraits of Hume and Smollett. With the armorial bookplate of Ramsey Abbey. The first 6 volumes cover the 'History of England' from the 'Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688' by David Hume. The next four volumes are a continuation by Tobias Smollett 'From the Revolution to the Death of George the Second'. The concluding seven volumes, by T.S. Hughes, cover the period from 'The Accession of George III., 1760, to the Accession of Queen Victoria, 1837'. A beautiful looking set of this great history.

Paris: Librairie Borell, 1898. Quarter morocco, 5 1/2 inches tall. Delightful little volume in a pretty binding with two gilt raised bands and delicate gilt tooling to the spine. Gilt top edge. The charming full page illustrations by J. Wagrez are repeated 'Hors-Texte'. A retelling of the myth of Biblis, who after falling in love with her twin brother Caunus, follows him across Greece, until grief-struck she is turned into a spring, or fountain. In French.

London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, c. 1860. Full morocco, 8 1/2 inches tall. A superb example of this edition in full hard grain morocco with twin raised bands and blind fillets. Slight rubbing to the raised bands and head cap, but overall in excellent condition. There is half a page of family register in ink before the New Testament. The fully functioning clasps are unusually ornate with bright red 'pads' under the brass. Pink edges. With separate title pages for the Old Testament, New Testament and the Psalms of David.