The Works.

THACKERAY, William Makepeace.

Published by London: Smith, Elder, & Co, 1869 & 1886

About this Item

First collected edition of Thackeray's complete works, beautifully illustrated, in a handsome binding. The Rowfant Bindery was established in 1910 in Cleveland, Ohio, by Henri Hardy, Leon Maillard, and Thomas James Holmes, shortly after the closing of the Club Bindery in New York, with which all three had been associated. This set is supplemented with volumes 23 & 24, which were later issued in 1886 and include Thackeray's miscellaneous essays, reviews, and contributions to Punch magazine. The set is pleasingly illustrated with numerous plates and vignettes, many after drawings by Thackeray himself. Modern editions seldom reproduce the illustrations in full and "the reader is deprived thereby not only of much amusement but also of important clues to the meaning of the stor[ies]" (Ray, p. 75). This set has a pleasing Cleveland association, from the library of Carolyn and Melville Haskell, with their bookplate to the front pastedowns. Melville Haskell's father was Coburn Haskell (1868-1922), a prominent Cleveland businessman and sportsman, and inventor of the modern golf ball. Haskell collected, amongst other things, first editions of early illustrators. Gordon N. Ray, The Illustrator and the Book in England from 1790 to 1914, 122. 24 vols, octavo (204 x 134 mm). Engraved frontispieces, folding frontispiece to vol. XVII, engraved plates and illustrations in text by Thackeray, Richard Doyle, George Du Maurier, and Frederick Walker, oval portraits printed in red in vol. XIX. Early 20th-century red half morocco by the Rowfant Bindery, spines with raised bands dotted in gilt, lettering and ornaments gilt in compartments, marbled sides and endpapers, top edges gilt. A lovely set, bright and sharp, superficial crack to front joint of vol. IV, repair to short tear to fore margin of one leaf in vol. XX, some faint toning to contents, but otherwise clean.

Seller Inventory # 157451

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Works.
• Publisher: London: Smith, Elder, & Co, 1869 & 1886
• Edition: 1st Edition