Practical Piety; Or, The Influence of the Religion of the Heart on the Conduct of the Life. In Two Volumes (Complete Set)

12mo. Two volumes. Complete 1821 edition. Bound in matching contemporary full leather, spines elegantly decorated with ornate gilt work within five raised bands. Marbled endpapers and matching pastedowns. Text blocks tight, secure, and clean pages. An exceptional historical association copy containing direct, multi-generational Gladstone family provenance. Volume 1 features a crucial contemporary pencil shelfmark/inventory reference reading "E 426/", indicating its historical placement within the private estate library at Hawarden Castle. Volume 1 and Volume 2 both feature a personal ink dedication on the second blank page reading: "To A.M. Gladstone from her affectionate mother, A. Gladstone, Grafton, 1823." This documents an intimate family gift from Anne Robertson Gladstone to her daughter, Anne Mackenzie Gladstone (sister to Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone), presented two years after publication during the family's residency at Grafton Street, London. Following Anne Mackenzie's early death, the set remained in the family library. Crucially, the versos of each volume bear the subsequent ownership signature in ink of Sir Thomas Gladstone (older brother to the Prime Minister) dated 1852. The 1852 handwriting displays calligraphic characteristics mirroring the 1823 hand (notably a distinct cursive loop linking directly into the capital "G" of Gladstone), matching Sir Thomas's hand as he assumed control of the family estate following the death of patriarch Sir John Gladstone in December 1851. Hannah More was a prominent evangelical writer and abolitionist whose works were foundational to the Gladstone family's deep religious convictions. A clean, tight, and highly secure example of premier British political provenance. A slither of leather missing to the base joint of volume 2, not affecting its sturdiness. p.xiv, 298; p. v, 275.…