Luxury Books

London: Scott, Webster, & Geary, 1839. 4 volume set, 9 inches tall. In a magnificent Victorian full calf with gilt raised bands, twin labels and superb extra-gilt tooling to the panels. Twin gilt fillets frame the boards. With an engraved frontispiece and 22 engraved portraits. Slight foxing to the plates and the preliminaries, otherwise clean. From the library of George Capron of Southwick Hall. An extremely smart set of this classic history of the Reformation of the Church of England by this great historian, philosopher and theologian.

London: John Murray, 1830. 3 volume set, 6 inches tall. A curious set in full early Victorian diced calf with gilt raised bands twin labels and blind embossed tooling to the panels. With the ink signature of George H. Capron dated 1840, of Southwick Hall. A splendid little set of this scarce title fresh from an English Country House.

London and New York: The London Printing and Publishing Company, 1860. 3 volume set, 11 inches tall. An impressive set in Victorian full diced calf with gilt raised bands, contrasting label and gilt tooling to the panels. Red edges. Some rubbing but with no splitting. Embellished with 7 folding hand coloured maps and 66 engraved views, portraits and maps. The portrait of Lord Raglan appears not to have been bound in. 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.

London: J. Valpy, 1832. 15 volume set, 6 1/2 inches tall. A splendid William IV half vellum with fine contrasting calf labels, gilt bands and extra gilt tooling to the panels. Speckled pink edges. Some marks and stains and foxing on the preliminaries and plates, otherwise clean. With a previous owner's name (Edmund Salwey Ford) on the paste-down endpapers. With 170 line engravings after the plates in Boydell's edition. With a life, glossary and notes.

London: John Van Voorst, 1839. Full calf, 8 1/2 inches tall. Full early Victorian calf with gilt raised bands, twin labels and dense gilt tooling to the panels. The spine is faded to gold, overall a delightful binding on a work of Natural History which is rather more whimsical than scientific. Embellished with more than 40 woodcuts.

London: Fisher, Sons & Co., 1832. 3 volume set, 11 inches tall. A very smart set in William IV full calf bound by D. Batten of Clapham Common, and with their ticket. Bound with gilt raised bands, twin labels, blind pallets to the panels. A blind tooled 'Cambridge Panel' incorporating a lovely blind roll, decorates the boards. A few scratches and scuffs but overall a fine set, unusually clean. With, including the frontispieces and the engraved title page in volume 1, a total of 217 charming engravings.

Edinburgh: Adam & Charles Black, 1871. 25 volume set, 7 1/2 inches tall. A very handsome Victorian half calf in pristine condition with gilt raised bands, twin burgundy labels and delicate gilt tooling to the panels. This is a well illustrated edition with engraved frontispieces, title pages and full page engravings throughout. An attractive set of the most popular novels of the the 19th century.

London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1850. Full Calf, 9 1/2 inches tall. A splendid Victorian full calf by Riviere with gilt raised bands, contrasting label and fine gilt tooling to the panels. Triple gilt fillets frame the boards. With the bookplate and signature of Lord Eldon, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain between 1801 and 1806. Double Column. Robert Southey was a great English romantic poet and biographer and a close friend and collaborator of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

London: Lawrence and Bullen, 1894. 2 volume set, 11 1/4 inches tall. An elegant set in half crushed morocco bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe with gilt raised bands and neat gilt framed panels and gilt top edges. A slight blotchiness to the spines. Limited to 1000 copies, of which this is no. 57. With 20 plates by E.R. Hughes. A collector and writer of short stories, Straparola published this collection of stories sometimes called 'The Facetious Nights' or 'The Pleasant Nights'. This collection includes some of the first known printed versions of fairy tales in Europe. Charles Perrault and the brothers Grimm both developed some of his tales.

London and Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1861; 1864. Nimmo, 1869. 3 volumes, 7 1/2 inches tall. Fine Victorian uniform full calf bindings with gilt raised bands, contrasting twin labels and gilt tooling to the panels by J. Maclaren of Edinburgh. A good looking run of these works by the great Scottish folklorist, paleontologist and geologist, Hugh Miller.

London: Cadell and Davies et al., 1807. 124 volume set bound in 61 volumes, 5 1/2 inches tall. A remarkable survival of the complete set of 124 volumes, here bound in 61, (with 2 volumes, occasionally 3, bound together). In a simple Regency half red straight grain morocco, with gilt titles, pallets and tiny centre tools. Contrast this set with our other complete set (5955), shown in the image of the complete run, which is bound in an elegant Regency tree calf. There are some marks and rubbing to some volumes but overall they are in excellent condition with no splitting or loss and the text blocks, including the engravings, are exceptionally clean. Each work has a fine engraved frontispiece and engraved title pages. Not many complete sets have survived of this great anthology.

London: Printed at the Chiswick Press, 1874. Full calf, 11 inches tall. A most impressive binding by Riviere with gilt raised bands, orange label and gorgeous gilt tooling to the panels. The boards are framed within a triple gilt fillet. Gilt dentelles and all edges. marks to the boards and foxing to the preliminaries. A finely printed edition, with 4 photographic plates, of these great English 18th century poems, including 'Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard'.

London: Henry G. Bohn, 1841. Full calf, 8 1/2 inches tall. A splendid full calf by Bickers, the colour of Robin Hood's tights, with gilt raised bands, red label, extra gilt panels and all edges gilt. Slight rubbing. Embellished with 14 full page engravings and an engraved title page. An interesting and romantic work by Hansard, 'the Gwent Bowman', being a 'Complete History and Practice of the Art, ancient and Modern'.

London: Charles Knight, 1847-1851. 12 volume set, 8 3/4 inches tall. An early Victorian encyclopaedia, in a classic half calf of the period, with gilt raised bands, twin labels and gilt and blind pallets. Speckled pink edges. Slight rubbing but overall in excellent condition. Engraved vignettes.

London: Shakespeare Press, for John Major, 1826-1828. 5 volume set, 10 inches tall. A beautiful later straight grain morocco binding by Riviere with gilt bands on green calf on a smooth back and gilt tooling to the panels. Triple gilt fillets and corner tools frame the boards. Gilt dentelles and all edges. Slight rubbing, but a fine clean set. Illustrated with 80 fine full page engraved portraits. Horace Walpole was an English politician, art historian and antiquarian, celebrated for writing this great work of art history and the first Gothic novel, 'The Castle of Otranto'.

London: A.Strahan and T. Cadell, 1795. 3 volume set, 11 inches tall. A very good looking tall 18th century tree calf with gilt pallets and twin labels. Blue speckled edges. First editions from Rockcorry Castle in Ireland, sadly demolished in the 1950s, with neat ink inscription running vertically on the title pages 'Rock Corry Castle 1828'. There is some rubbing, superficial loss to long defunct insect and minor splitting to the binding, which remains firm and solid. Wraxall's great history covers the period from 'The Accession of Henry the Third, to the Death of Louis the Fourteenth'.

London: John Murray, 1813. 3 volume set, 8 1/2 inches tall. A superb set, fresh from an English Country House, of this scarce history in Regency tree calf with gilt pallets and fine title labels. Speckled edges. With an armorial bookplate and the neat ink former owner's name at the head of the title pages, 'James F. Leitch'. Some scuffing and superficial scratches, overall a lovely set of this history in English, translated from the French.

London: John Van Voorst, 1841. Full calf, 8 1/2 inches tall. Full early Victorian calf with gilt raised bands, twin labels and dense gilt tooling to the panels. The spine is faded to gold, overall a delightful binding on a work of Natural History more whimsical than scientific. The engravings, in particular are particularly charming.

London: Virtue and Co., 1888. 4 volume set, 10 3/4 inches tall. A handsome set of this popular history in a Victorian half calf with wide gilt raised bands, label and gilt and blind pallets. Some rubbing. With full page engraved plates and engraved vignettes to every page.

London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1816. 4 Volumes, 8 1/2" tall. A splendid half calf binding with all the typical Regency features on a smooth back. With gilt, inked and blind bands and an elaborate center tooling and a curious blind crest framing the volume number. Speckled edges. Each volume covers various centuries, and a fifth volume was published at a later date. This history is rarely found in such good condition.