About this Item
The Library of Imperial History et al. 1973-6. In 34 Volumes bound in full vellum gilt with Churchill's coat of arms in gilt to upper board of each volume. All page edges gilt. Presented in a custom-made wooden bookshelf. The Library of Imperial History went bankrupt before the projected run of 3,000 sets could be completed, so "the print run never exceeded 2,000 copies. " (Cohen). "The specifications were titanic: five million words in 19,000 pages, weighing 19 lbs, taking up 4.5 ft of shelf space. To achieve publication, 11 publishing houses in Great Britain, the United States and Canada released their individual copyrights in exchange for the promise that no other complete edition of Churchill works would be published until the expiration of international copyright in 2019" (Richard M. Langworth). This set lacks the four later published volumes of essays but is complete in itself. Every volume has the original maps, plans, photographs and illustrations, some are folding. As a natural material vellum has some natutral variation in tones, volume I has patches of natural browning to lower board, vols. II, VII, XIV have browning to boards, vols. IX, XI, XII, XX, XIX, XXVI, XXXIV has some foxing to boards. Vol. XXXIII has some spotting also. Vols. VIII, XVI, XXIII have some discolouration to boards. All the volumes are in their slipcases which are racing green morocco and also have the Churchill coat of arms to upper panel. They do show a few signs of shelfwear, some have spotting or a couple of small patches of rubbing. . The books are all in fine condition. Please enquire for more details and postal options. Seller Inventory # 97654
Contact seller
Report this item
