Description

First Edition, With the elaborately engraved bookplates of Sir Edward Smith, 1st Baronet of Edmonthorpe (c.1630–1707), Representative in the Little Parliament 1653, High Sheriff of Leicestershire, 1665 and the heraldic plate of the 7th Earl of Buckinghamshire OBE DL, styled Lord Hobart from 1875 to 1885, a British Liberal politician who sat on the Liberal benches in the House of Lords and served briefly as a Lord-in-waiting from January to June 1895 in the Liberal administration of Lord Rosebery. Illustrated with the engraved frontispiece of the Earl of Strafford, and with finely decorated engraved intial letters, one being nine- and one being 15-line, a fine and elaborate headpiece to the dedication leaf. Folio, 12.5" x 7 7/8", Full, contemporary mottled calf, the spine with raised bands and original red morocco lettering label gilt, the covers bordered with triple fillet rules in blind, decorated floral tools at the corners in blind. [x], 1 - 76, 101 - 252, 401 - 786 pp. Collated Complete as called for despite pagination shifts. A fine copy, crisp, clean, and unpressed, the binding strong and tight, some imperceptible expert strengthening to the hinges, aged in a pleasing way.