Description

8vo., First Edition, with portrait frontispiece in photogravure (original tissue guard present), title in red and black, 14 plates and facsimiles (a number in photogravure and one folding) and 47 illustrations in the text, endpapers mildly browned, neat contemporary signatures on blank preliminary; original blue cloth, upper board and backstrip blocked in white, gilt back, gilt top, uncut, backstrip very lightly faded else a bright, crisp copy. Bright copy of a key critical and topographical study. The patterned binding copies 'embroidery upon a musin scarf worked in satin-stitch' by Austen herself; the frontispiece reproduces in photogravure the portrait of Jane by her sister Cassandra. 'These ladies [the Hills] were pioneers. Armed with pen and pencil they made their way in 'a country chaise' to Steventon and thence followed their heroine to Reading, Bath, Lyme, Southampton, Stoneleigh, Chawton, Godmersham and Winchester. They made the acquaintance of the various families and were shown manuscripts and portraits' (Chapman). THE ORIGINAL EDITION IS VERY SCARCE. Chapman 111; Gilson M251; Keynes 223.