Description

Original binding by Root & Son. Full leather with gold tooling on the edges of the boards on the interior. Five raised bands. The boards had detached at some point and hinges were repaired with a red tape that is currently holding together quite well, far better than having completely detached boards (PHOTO 2, 3 & 9) . I understand that a book in this price range should be rebound but the retention of the original boards and spine cover will allow for a quality repair that will likely allow the use of these original parts. The end papers will need replacement (PHOTO 9) but I think that this can be cleaned up exceptionally well while retaining the vast majority of the original parts. The corner wear is through the leather but relatively minor (PHOTO 12) -There are light pencil notations within the front end paper that reflected the research done by a prior dealer: It reads: "First Issue. Title differs from that of second issue, numerous variations in the early pages. No note at foot of page 9 (PHOTO 5). Half title is first state with printers inscription off center. Has all the ads at the end" (PHOTO 4). While that could be easily erased, for my purposes, having the research done is better to retain. -Other than that, the only markings I noticed was a highly faded owner signature at the top of the title page (PHOTO 1) - Silk bookmark is present but detached. (PHOTO 1) - All thirty six Cruikshank are accounted for and well maintained with heavy toning to the tissue guards. - There is heavy age related paper toning, especially to pages adjacent to the tissue guards. There is occasional light soiling and minor foxing. The one major exception is heavy foxing to the three fold out pages of the Life in London song, which also resulted in light foxing to the pages adjacent. (PHOTO 11) - The tissue guards for all colored illustrations resulted in darkening to the illustration page and the text page touching the tissue. One tissue guard has a chip (page 361)- (PHOTO 8) - (PHOTO 7) shows that the tissue guards darkened both the illustration page and the text page adjacent to the tissue guard and still a light image of the illustration can be seen on the text page. - There is occasional foxing, but only an occasional spot for pages not touching illustration pages or the protective tissue. Occasional minor edge soiling with one exception of moderate soiling as reflected in (PHOTO 10). - All hand colored original Isaac Robert and George Cruikshank plates are present as well as wood cuts in text. I found no tears or creased pages. PLEASE USE ZOOM FUNCTION ON ALL PHOTOS. PLEASE NOTE: For book sales, I virtually always include a vinyl bag tightly wrapped on the exterior. This is an attempt to prevent any USPS employee from opening the package for inspection as it would be time consuming for them to repackage it. This is done simply because my packaging is done more carefully than their repackaging and also to protect the book from the elements. The vinyl bag covers cardboard protection and you can simply cut the bag open (carefully) and remove the contents. The cardboard protection is also typically held with tape and cutting in the obvious places will allow the cardboard to pop right open, exposing the book (in another protective vinyl bag). Using this method, you should be able to open any book I send in under a minute. No "buzz saw" is required. Thank you