finely bound sets (6 Ergebnisse)

260 x 180 mm. (10 1/4 x 7"). Nine volumes (volume II bound without two-page Appendix IV) Jackson, A. V. Williams. SPLENDID CONTEMPORARY EMERALD GREEN MOROCCO, lavishly gilt and with delicate scarlet morocco inlays forming a repeating peacock feather motif surrounded by Art Nouveau twining vines, all within a gilt French fillet, spine similarly decorated, raised bands, BROWN MOROCCO DOUBLURES with a central inlaid and gilt triple elephant motif within a wide green morocco frame adorned by gilt peacock feathers with indigo morocco inlays, unusually elaborate floral silk flyleaves, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed. WITH 153 PLATES, including 72 photographic reproductions on shiny paper, and 81 plates in three states with printed tissue guards: one hand colored; one tipped on in black & white; and one sepia; plus numerous black & white illustrations, 68 of these being full-page; and one double-page map. Spines uniformly sunned to a light tan, but bindings otherwise lustrous and virtually unworn; one tissue guard stuck to the plate facing p. 150 in volume IV, a few corner creases, other trivial imperfections, but very clean and fresh, with some leaves still unopened. This nine-volume history of India features a luxurious binding, with sparkling gilt and vibrant morocco inlays forming motifs that perfectly suit its contents. Intended to present the history of India from the "earliest times" through the British Raj, this profusely illustrated work was written by some of the most prominent Victorian scholars on the subject and edited by an esteemed professor of Indo-Iranian languages at Columbia University. Volume I, "From the earliest times to the sixth century B.C.," is the work of native Calcutta historian Romesh Chunder Dutt (1848-1909), author of major works on the cultural and economic history of the country. Volume II, "From the sixth century B.C. to the Mohammedan conquest," is the contribution of Irish antiquarian Vincent Arthur Smith (1848-1920), who wrote the "Oxford History of India," which DNB says "was to exert a vast influence over generations of students." Volumes III and IV, "Medieval India from the Mohammedan conquest to the reign of Akbar the Great" and "From the reign of Akbar the Great to the fall of the Moghul empire," come from British orientalist and numismatics expert Stanley Lane-Poole (1854-1931), praised by DNB as "a versatile writer, able to produce both academic reference works . . . and popular versions of his biographies and introductions to historical subjects." Volumes V-VIII were written by former administrators of the Raj, who had taken up Indian history as an avocation. Volume V, "The Mohammedan period as described by its own historians," was prepared by editors from earlier works by Sir Henry Miers Elliot (1808-53). Volumes VI and VII, "From the first European settlements to the founding of the English East India Company" and "The European struggle for Indian supremacy in the seventeenth century," were penned by Sir William Wilson Hunter (1840-1900), who spent 25 years in the Indian Civil Service before retiring to write about the history of colonialism in India. The penultimate volume, "From the close of the seventeenth century to the present time," was written by someone who actually lived key parts of that history, Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall (1835-1911), survivor and hero of the Indian Mutiny, lieutenant-governor of the North-Western Provinces, and longtime member of the Council on India. In the final volume, editor Abraham Valentine Williams Jackson (1862-1937) compiles "Historic accounts of India by foreign travellers, classic, oriental, and occidental." All volumes are copiously illustrated with photo plates of life in Victorian India, many taken from Jackson's own photographs, and with examples of Indian art, architecture, and crafts. Though unsigned, the spectacular bindings were clearly the work of a master, possibly Sangorski & Sutcliffe. The quality of materials, skill of finishing, and elaborate motifs are consistent with those produced by that outstanding bindery, or another of equal skill and taste. While the work occurs with some regularity on the market, it is extremely rare in such a beautiful decorative dress as seen here. Edition magnifique, letter J of 26 lettered sets.

230 x 165 mm. (9 x 6 1/2"). 10 volumes. SUPERB CONTEMPORARY INDIGO CRUSHED MOROCCO, GILT AND INLAID, covers with gilt rule border, central panel framed by 20 inlaid lighter blue morocco tulips interspersed with tiny gilt stars, raised bands, spine with three panels inlaid with sprays of dark red and citron morocco tulips and lilies accented with small tools, two panels with gilt titling, SKY BLUE MOROCCO DOUBLURES featuring an indigo morocco frame inlaid with red morocco lilies at corners, central panel inlaid with eight teal morocco tulips and a large red morocco lily on graceful gilt stems, a sprinkling of gilt stars above them, ivory watered silk free endleaves, all edges gilt. LAVISHLY ILLUSTRATED by artists including A. G. Learned and E. F. Bems with decorative frame on limitations and title pages, NINE FRONTISPIECES, 97 HEADPIECE VIGNETTES, 95 DECORATIVE TAILPIECES, AND 269 THREE-QUARTER FRAMES, ALL HAND COLORED, and 675 black & white three-quarter frames. With engraved bookplate of George Clinton Ward on front flyleaf (most now loose). Spines with just a hint of dulling, a whisper of shelfwear to a couple of volumes, isolated small marginal smudges (from the printing process), but A VERY FINE SET WITH VIRTUALLY NO SIGNS OF USE. This superb set features English translations of important Classical texts handsomely printed on Japanese vellum, extravagantly illustrated, and sumptuously bound. It contains "The Wisdom of Marcus Aurelius," "The Eclogues of Vergil," "Sayings of Epictetus," "Selections from Gesta Romanorum," "Odes of Anacreon, Anacreontics, and Other Selections from the Greek Anthology," "The Satires of Horace," "The Story of Odysseus in the Land of the Phacians, Being the Sixth and a Part of the Seventh Book of the Odyssey," "Selections from Aristophanes and Lucian," "The Olympic and Pythian Odes of Pindar," and selections from the Koran translated by George Sale. The project was undertaken by writer, translator, and editor Nathan Haskell Dole, a popular member of the Boston literary set. Educated at Philips Andover and Harvard, he was much influenced by family friends like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. He showed an early facility for languages, teaching himself to read French, German, Greek, and Latin. Our set was designed by Dole to be the crown jewel of a library, combining beauty and luxury with Classical erudition. The bindings here are unsigned, but are very similar to those on a copy of this work in the Phoebe Boyle sale bound by the Adams Bindery. Ralph Randolph Adams was, along with Henry Stikeman (and a handful or others), one of the great American art bookbinders of his era. His workshop produced bindings of notable beauty and craftsmanship. The New York Times (11 October 1902) described an Adams binding as "so exquisite in design and execution that those long skeptical of the ability of Americans to bind artistically should now be convinced of their error. . . . It is to be hoped that all American binders will be encouraged to strive toward producing designs [like Adams'] that are in a measure original and which show more of the individual touch of the artist.". No. 2 OF 26 COPIES OF THE HELLENIC EDITION, printed on Royal Japanese vellum.

216 x 130 mm. (8 1/2 x 5 1/8"). 10 volumes (First work: two volumes; second work: two volumes; third work: six volumes). ATTRACTIVE CONTEMPORARY TREE CALF, smooth spines divided into panels by gilt rules, one red and one black morocco label. Front pastedown stamped in ink "Ashley Combe"; front free endpaper with ink library stamp of Ben Damph Forest. âA couple of boards with short scratches, two volumes with corners gently bumped, occasional minor browning, isolated faint spotting or smudges, other trivial imperfections, but A FINE SET, with few indications of use, inside or out. This collection of British and royal histories comes in beautiful bindings and with distinguished provenance: it was part of the impressive library at Lord Lovelace's Scottish hunting lodge known as Ben Damph Forest. William King, eighth Baron King of Ockham (1805-93), lord lieutenant of Surrey, and first Earl of Lovelace is best known for having a remarkable wife--the brilliant mathematician Augusta Ada Byron, sole legitimate child of Lord Byron, whose work with Charles Babbage produced what is considered the first computer program. The binding commissioned by Lord Lovelace is ornate but tasteful, and the set is very much in "country house"--or in this case, hunting lodge--condition. The radical Whig and a supporter of the American Revolution, William Belsham (1752-1827) was an English historian and political writer whose considerable output comprised a lasting contribution to the understanding of the historical currents of his time. FIRST EDITION of the first work; Second Edition of the second work; Third Edition of the third work.

257 x 175 mm. (10 1/8 x 7"). Five volumes. HANDSOME 19TH CENTURY BROWN MOROCCO, covers with gilt Greek key roll border, raised bands, compartments with gilt rules, central floral ornaments, and gilt lettering, gilt turn-ins, all edges gilt. Volumes III-V each with frontispiece plus a total of 84 steel-engraved plates (a few in color), eight wood-engraved plates, and several wood-engraved illustrations in the text by the author, J. M. W. Turner, and others. A touch of rubbing to extremities, spines slightly sunned, covers with a few negligible blemishes, but the bindings very well preserved with only minor signs of wear; isolated light foxing to perhaps a score of leaves in total (mostly confined to upper margins and only once touching a plate), a few instances of faint thumbing, but the contents clean and fresh, without the pervasive foxing and browning that often plague this work. AN ATTRACTIVE SET. This pleasing set is the first major work by John Ruskin (1819-1900), a pre-eminent figure in literary non-fiction whose theories on the interconnection of art and life continue to have influence today. Ruskin begins "Modern Painters" with a defense of the work of J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851) against critics who claimed his work was "unlike nature." In the words of art historian George Landow, the author then goes on to "explain the nature of beauty and demonstrate its importance in human life." In Ruskin's view, says Landow, "all beauty, if properly regarded, is theophany, the revelation of God." Tolstoy said that in all of his writings, Ruskin was "one of those rare men who think with their hearts, and so he thought and said not only what he himself had seen and felt, but what everyone will think and say in the future." In "The Social History of Art," Arnold Hauser proclaims that "there has never been such a clear awareness of the organic relationship between art and life . . . since Ruskin." He describes Ruskin as "the first person in England to emphasize the fact that art is a public concern and that no nation can neglect it without endangering its social existence." And he says that our author was "the first to proclaim the gospel that art is not the privilege of artists, connoisseurs and the educated classes, but is part of every man's inheritance and estate." The numerous plates here--most of which were done either by Ruskin himself or by Turner, the artist he championed--run the gamut from sketches, fully realized landscapes, and studies of leaves, branches, or clouds, and they complement this important text beautifully. Sets of this work are frequently made up of mixed editions, as here, but are often found foxed and browned due to the paper stock. Our copy is mercifully clean, bright, and in an excellent state of preservation both inside and out. Seventh Edition of volume I; Fifth Edition of volume II; Second Edition of volumes III and IV; FIRST EDITION of volume V.

240 x 150 mm. (9 3/8 x 5 7/8"). 12 volumes. HANDSOME DARK PURPLE CRUSHED MOROCCO, GILT, triple gilt-ruled border with sprays of flowers in each corner and along the sides, raised bands, compartments with gilt lettering and tooling, top edge gilt, RED MOROCCO DOUBLURES bordered in purple border, featuring several gilt rules and scrolling gilt tools in panel corners, red watered silk endpapers. With portrait frontispieces and numerous gravure plates. Limitation statement of first volume with the initials of the printer, D. B. Updike of the Merrymount Press; flyleaf of each volume with morocco ex-libris of Francis Kettaneh. Extremities with the occasional tiny nick, spines slightly sunned, covers with a few negligible scratches, a few pages with light thumbing in the margins, but all of these blemishes trivial. A FINE SET INSIDE AND OUT. This finely bound, finely printed, and strictly limited set includes the biography, prose, letters, essays, and poetry of "the prince of English essayists." According to Day, Charles Lamb contributed to the essay form by concentrating on feeling (rather than thought), by projecting a fuller sense of self into the work, and by imbuing his text with a poetic or lyrical quality. Lamb was also an accomplished poet, writing in both rhyming and blank verse, as well as a friend to many of the leading literary figures of the Romantic period--his correspondents include Wordsworth, Southey, Hazlitt, and Coleridge, whom he had known since childhood. Lamb's letters, by turns witty and meditative, reveal a life of intense reading and writing at a time when British literature was undergoing a radical transformation. Charles Lamb (1775-1834) was educated at Christ's Hospital and at 17 joined the East India House, where he worked from 1792-1825. In 1796, Lamb's sister Mary stabbed and killed their mother with scissors in a fit of insanity. Charles took on her care as well as serving as sole support for a dying aunt and a prematurely senile father. Nonetheless, Lamb and his sister were devoted to one another and lived long and productive lives, publishing together the wildly popular "Tales from Shakespeare" (1807) and "Mrs. Leicester's School" (1809), both of which are included here. Though unsigned, the bindings are extremely attractive and fittingly luxurious for the limited-edition contents--the thick gilt tooling, luxurious doublures, and red silk endpapers housing tactilely pleasing Japanese vellum make this set a delight both to have and to hold. Edmonton Edition. No. 56 OF 100 COPIES on Japanese vellum.

Edition de Luxe. ONE OF 1,000 COPIES. 222 x 146 mm. (8 3/4 x 5 3/4"). 16 volumes. Last three volumes (containing "Letters") edited by Charles Eliot Norton. VERY HANDSOME DARK GREEN MOROCCO, EXTRAVAGANTLY GILT, covers with a wavy gilt border and charming floral ornaments at corners, central panel (with square-notched corners) formed by six parallel gilt lines; raised bands, spine compartments attractively gilt with scrolling flowers and foliage enclosing a floral fleuron centerpiece, wide turn-ins with elaborate gilt decoration featuring many large and small roses and leaves on stylized lattice work, the turn-ins enclosing SCARLET-COLORED POLISHED MOROCCO DOUBLURES, crimson watered silk free endleaves, top edge gilt, other edges rough trimmed, MOSTLY UNOPENED (six of the volumes entirely unopened, and all but one of the others largely so). With 80 mounted photogravure illustrations on India paper (including frontispieces, one double plate, and one plate with four portraits). Original tissue guards. âJoints of volume I with a hint of wear, (a half dozen other joints with very slight rubbing), spines evenly sunned to an attractive olive brown (though a handful of spines a bit lighter than the others), one small cover scuff, two leaves roughly opened (with no serious consequences), other isolated trivial imperfections, but a nearly fine set in quite attractive bindings, the leather lustrous, and the (mostly unopened) text essentially undisturbed. Though not to be found atop the Mt. Olympus of American literature, James Russell Lowell (1819-91) made significant contributions over a long period of time as a journalist, editor, critic, poet, philosopher, and essayist. He was the first editor of the "Atlantic Monthly" and later co-editor of the "North American Review"; he was the second president of the Modern Languages Association; and he achieved literary prominence not only in America, but abroad, where he enjoyed a triumphal European tour from 1872-74. He was at his best when dispensing folk wit and wisdom, something that obviously informs his first significant work, "The Biglow Papers," which Day describes as "a masterpiece in the genre of folksy philosophizing in American dialect." Among other important contributions is his long poem "A Fable for Critics," which includes--in not always laudatory terms--his personal characterizations of major contemporaneous American writers and his reviews of their work. These bindings look extremely good on the shelf, and the doublures of scarlet--especially as they face crimson-colored watered silk--are a bold highlight of the flamboyant decoration.