Morocco Bindings

London: John Major, 1836. 2 volume set, 9 inches tall. A beautiful early Victorian full morocco by Riviere with gilt raised bands and ornate gilt tooling of the highest quality to the panels. Triple gilt fillets and corner tools frame the boards. Gilt dentelles and top edges. With the armorial bookplate of William Charles Smith. With 10 engraved plates. A splendid set of this most entertaining work by the great English bibliographer, Thomas Frognall Dibdin.

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.

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.

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.

London: John Murray, 1816; 1818; 1814; 1816; 1817; 1816. Full morocco, 8 1/2 inches tall. A very handsome full 'Romantic' straight grain morocco binding from the Regency period from the library of the Duke of Northumberland, bearing the armorial bookplate of Hugh Percy. Bound with dense blind tooling to the raised bands, panels and boards. With gilt titles, fillet framing the boards and all edges. Some rubbing to the shoulders but no splitting or loss. A clean collection of first and early editions in a fine binding of the period.

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.

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: The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1849. Full morocco, 7 1/2 inches tall. An impressive Victorian binding with gilt raised bands, fine extra gilt tooling to the panels and boards, gilt dentelles and all edges. Engraved illustrations throughout. Slight rubbing and a neat ink inscription, dated 1852, on the first blank. Philip Henry Gosse was an English naturalist who popularised many aspects of natural science. He natural created the world's first public aquarium at London Zoo in 1853, and coined the term "aquarium".

London: MacMillans' 1892. Full morocco, 7 1/4 inches tall. A superb full crushed morocco with raised bands, gilt titles, dentelles and all edges. A gilt coronet atop the initial 'R' is on the upper board. Some rubbing to the shoulders. With the bookplate of Durdans, Rosebery's Surrey country house. Inscribed to The Earl of Rosebery on the first blank, a letter in the same hand is loosely inserted and a blind stamp on the title page. Lord Rosebery famously said that he had three aims in life: to win the Derby, to marry an heiress, and to become Prime Minister. He achieved all three.

Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and London: Hurst, Robinson and Co., 1822-1830. 53 volume set, 8 1/2 inches tall. A magnificent set in bound in the highest quality Georgian full hard grain morocco with gilt raised bands and superb extra gilt panels. Gilt and blind fillets frame the boards. All edges gilt. Each volume has an engraved title page and further full page engravings. There is a degree of foxing, mostly to the engraving, but a generally very clean set. There is some scratching and a couple of small gouges, but is very smart and has absolutely no splitting or loss. A remarkable set.

London: John Bumpus, et al., 1822. Full morocco, 6 inches tall. A rather splendid binding with wide gilt raised bands, gilt, blind and inked tooling to the panels. A very smart gilt roll with inked thistle corner tools frames the boards. All edges gilt. With the armorial bookplate of Robert Williams of Bride Head in Dorset. There is a stain to the engraved portrait and slight darkening of the spine, otherwise clean. A delightful little copy of the works of this great Scottish 18th century poet.

Amsterdam: 1745. 2 volume set, 6 1/2 inches tall. An exquisite full crushed morocco binding by Reymann with gilt raised bands and exceptionally fine and delicate tooling to the panels. Triple gilt fillets frame the boards. Gilt dentelles and all edges. The whole work is remarkably bright and clean. There is a small black ink stain in the margin of pages 3-6 in volume one and no frontispiece to volume 2 was ever bound in. Embellished with an engraved frontispiece to volume 1, engraved vignettes to both title pages, Engraved tailpieces and 68 engravings illustrating the tales. In the original French.

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: Cadell and Moxon, 1834. Full morocco, 8 inches tall. A superb early Victorian full hard grain morocco binding by the great firm of Hayday with the following inscription in pencil on the paste down endpaper: "Bound in prize leather, Exhibited at the Great Exhibition, Hyde Park 1851". With raised bands, fine ornate gilding around a single 'Aldine' vine leaf. A series of gilt rolls and fillets frame the Grecian Urn device on the boards. Gilt dentelles and all edges. Armorial bookplate. Roger's poetry is mostly remembered for the fine engraved vignettes by Turner and others in this edition rather than for its artistic merit. Slight foxing, as usual.