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Antique Scottish Literary Essays Three Volumes Full Tree Calf 1809

Antique Scottish Literary Essays Three Volumes Full Tree Calf 1809

$325.00 USD
$325.00 USD
Sale Sold out
About This Piece

Three volumes of tree calf, the boards patterned in that dramatic acid-treated swirl that was the height of Regency bookbinding fashion, spines gilt-tooled across raised bands with red leather labels, edges gilt, endpapers marbled in blue and gray. This is a set that was bought to be looked at as much as read. Inside is something equally worth having: the collected issues of Scotland's first great literary periodical, edited by Henry Mackenzie and written by a circle that included David Hume, Lord Hailes, and the Scottish Enlightenment's finest legal and literary minds. Mackenzie, known as the Scottish Addison, used The Mirror to model polite society for his countrymen, in the tradition of the Spectator but with a distinctly Edinburgh cast. This London printing by Taylor & Hessey dates to 1809, the same publisher who would later bring Keats and De Quincey to the world. A period ownership inscription appears on each title page, the hand consistent across all three volumes but the name no longer legible. The set is sound, handsome, and complete.

Details
Author
Henry Mackenzie, editor, with contributions by William Craig, Alexander Abercromby, Alexander Fraser Tytler, David Hume, and others
Title
The Mirror: A Periodical Paper, Published at Edinburgh in the Years 1779 and 1780
Publisher
Taylor & Hessey, Fleet-Street; and Vernon, Hood & Sharpe, Poultry, London
Date
1809
Edition
Later edition (11th edition reached before 1802; this printing post-dates that sequence)
Volumes
Three volumes, complete
Binding
Full tree calf, gilt-tooled spines with raised bands, red leather labels, gilt edges, blue-gray marbled endpapers
Illustrations
Frontispiece engraving to each volume, three plates total
Inscription
Period ownership inscription present on each title page; same hand throughout; name not legible
Dimensions
6.75 in H x 4.5 in W per volume
Language
English
Origin
United Kingdom
Condition

Bindings are attractive and structurally sound, with mild hinge cracking consistent with age and normal for books of this period and format. The tree calf boards retain their distinctive patterning; gilt to the spines remains bright and legible. Edges gilt. Title pages show mild foxing, as is typical for this period; the text block throughout is clean with only mild foxing. All three frontispiece engravings are present. No loose or missing pages. A very good and complete set.

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