Leather Bound Sets

London: Henry G. Bohn, 1845. 3 volume set, 8 1/2 inches tall. A very smart early Victorian half dark blue calf with gilt raised bands, fine gilt tooling to the panels around a martial centre tool and contrasting label. Embellished with 48 engraved plates, including 3 vignettes to the title pages and further vignettes throughout. Many of the engraved battle plans have hand-colouring. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, was one of the greatest British military leaders and political figures during the first half of the nineteenth century. He twice served as Prime Minister and was the British commander who ended the Anglo-Mysore wars in 1799 and the Napoleonic Wars with the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

Berlin: Photographische Gesellschaft Berlin, 1895. Full morocco, 26 1/2 inches tall by the great London firm of Leighton of Golden Square and with their ticket. A binding of the finest quality with 2 raised bands on a smooth back and an elaborate series of gilt rolls to the boards. Gilt dentelles and top edge. Scratch to the lower board and light foxing, otherwise pristine. An elephant folio with 51 photogravures printed on hand-made paper of works by Rembrandt. With 3 title pages listing 16 plates from the Dresden Gallery, 17 from the Cassel Gallery and 18 from the Berlin Gallery. The blind stamp of the Photographische Gesellschaft Berlin is found in the margin under each plate. This is a Rothschild copy from the Exbury House Library.

London: C. S. Arnold, 1827. Full calf, 5 inches tall. A delightful little Georgian full calf with gilt raised bands, ornate gilt tooling to the panels and contrasting bright red label. With an engraved vignette on the title page. Smollett's last, and in the view of many, his best and funniest novel.

London: Bradbury & Evans, 1858. 2 volume set, 9 inches tall. A superb tree calf binding by the great firm of Hayday with gilt raised bands, extra gilt panels and contrasting labels. A striking gilt roll frames the boards. Illustrated by Thackeray himself with vignettes and full page engraved plates throughout. The Virginians, 'A Tale of the Last Century', involves the American Wars of Independence, as well as Gereral Woolfe's capture of Quebec. A fine set of the first edition in book form.

London: George Bell and Sons, 1890. Full vellum, 6 inches tall. A splendid little binding with gilt lettering, a flower with red onlayed calf petals on the smooth back and a simple gilt panel on the boards. Gilt dentelles and all edges. A fine selection of classical Greek poetry including verse from The Iliad; The Odyssey, Pindar; Aeschylus; Sophocles; Euripides and Aristophanes, amongst many others.

London and New York: The London Printing and Publishing Company, 1860. 3 volume set, 11 inches tall. An impressive set in Victorian calf calf with gilt raised bands, contrasting labels and ornate gilt tooling to the panels. With the bookplate of Theodore Moore. Some slight foxing to the preliminaries. Embellished with 7 folding hand coloured maps and 67 engraved views, portraits and maps. This History gives 'Full Details of the Operations of the Allied Armies'. A very clean and handsome set of this great History of the Crimean War.

Philadelphia: Privately printed, 1931. Magnificent full morocco, 18 inches tall. With gilt raised bands, superb extra gilt panels and exceptional gilt tooling to the boards. With wide dentelles and watered silk doublures and end papers.
 Widener and his father assembled an extensive and valuable art collection displayed at Lynnewood Hall. The collection included works from Bellini, Cellini, Degas, Donatello, El Greco, Frans Hals, Gainsborough, Monet, Raphael, Rembrandt, Titian, Van Dyck. His great philanthropic endeavor was as founding benefactor of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. In 1942, Widener donated over 2,000 pieces of art to the museum. A unique and spectacular copy in its original slip case.

London: C. Dolman, 1845. 2 vol set, 8 1/2 inches tall. A handsome Victorian half calf with gilt raised bands, twin labels and ornate gilt tooling to the panels. Pink speckled edges. Some ribbing and scuffing as well as sporadic foxing, particularly heavy on the title pages. From the recently dispersed Country House library of Bridehead in Dorset. An interesting and scholarly "Account of its Origin, Government, Doctrines, Worship, Revenues and Clerical and Monastic Institutions".

London: T. Cadell; J. Rivington et al., 1828. 8 volume set,8 3/4 inches tall. A later half calf with gilt raised bands. twin labels and ornate gilt centre tools. Pink speckled edges. 1 engraved portrait and 3 engraved folding maps. Some rubbing, a couple of chipped head caps, slight grubby and with foxing to the maps. A solid complete, set with a clean highly readable text, of probably the greatest Ancient History in the English language.

London: Bohn, 1856. 6 volume set, 7 inches tall. A classic little Victorian full calf with gilt raised bands, gilt tooling to the panels and twin labels. Joseph Addison wan an English early 18th century writer and politician most remembered today for founding The Spectator magazine with his close friend Richard Steele.

London: Patrick Martin, 1816. Full calf, 9 inches tall. A splendid later full calf with gilt raised bands, ornate gilt panels and twin labels. Gilt dentelles and top edge. With 15 full page hand-coloured aquatints, as called for. With its felt lined buckram slip case. Predating Mitford's 'Adventures of Johnny Newcombe in the Navy' this hilarious satire presents our hero as he begins his military career on dry land. We witness his experiences in Pall Mall and then onto The Peninsula War in which he helps repel the invading French forces of Napoleon.

London: Thomas Tegg, 1827. 2 volume set, 6 1/2 inches tall. A beautiful little Georgian full calf binding with gilt raised bands, extra gilt panels and contrasting maroon labels. Twin gilt fillets, triple blind fillets and blind corner tools frame the boards. An engraved title page in both volumes. This set covers the period " From the Earliest State to the Death of Alexander the Great". Oliver Goldsmith, novelist, poet and historian influenced later English authors Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, George Eliot, and Mary Shelley, all of whom mention his characters in their own novels. A delightful set.

London: John Murray, 1819. 7 volume set, 8 inches tall. A very pleasing Regency full calf in fine condition with blind tooled raised bands and panels, twin labels and a series of blind fillets and a wide roll frames the boards. Internally and externally very clean with just a few small scuffs and marks to the bindings. There is a neat ink inscription of the period to a Louisa Blaxlund (?). This anthology, "with Biographical and Critical Notices, and an Essay on English Poetry" represents a comprehensive selection of poets from the age of Chaucer, John Gower and John Lydgate.

London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855. 2 volume set, 8 3/4 inches tall. A splendid Victorian full straight grain calf from the recently dispersed Country House library of Bridehead in Dorset. With gilt raised bands, twin labels and superb gilt tooling to the panels. Sydney Smith, author, philosopher, humourist and wit, whose opinions on early American literature had huge impact. A "sincere friend of America", he founded the Edinburgh Review, lectured at the Royal Institution and is still known for his rhyming salad dressing recipe!

London: Macmillan and Co., 1908. Full calf, 6 inches tall. A delightful Edwardian full calf with raised bands and fine gilt tooling to the panels and boards. Gilt dentelles and all edges. There is some blotchiness to the title panel and a slight dark mark near the fore-edge of the upper board and slight rubbing. On the second blank is a long ink inscription dated, Edinburgh, 1911 and the letters T.Y.S. appear in the cartouche on the upper board. The binding has the stamp 'Bound by Otto Schultze & Co. Edinburgh'. A lovely little copy of this famous anthology "Selected from the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language".

Not known c.1890. Full vellum, 6 1/2 inches tall. A wonderful Florentine illuminated binding with elaborate manuscript illumination around a raised gold leaf initial to the upper board and manuscript decoration to the spine, lower board and title page. This is probably the nicest Florentine vellum binding of its type that we have ever seen, being in superb condition with no repair or touching up, a vellum blank and decorated title page replacing the printed title page and being a great title, in English.

London: William Tegg, 1812-1815. 12 volume set, 8 inches tall. A superb Regency full calf binding with wide gilt bands, delicate gilt tooling with a Greek lyre centre tool to the panels and contrasting maroon label. A gilt roll and blind fillets frame the boards. Portrait, engraved title pages and full page engravings throughout. There is considerable fading to the spines and some boards, in particular that of volume I, otherwise a fine clean firm set. On the reverse of the paste down endpaper of volume one are are 2 ink inscriptions. Overall a splendid set of this scarce edition.