[COVER TITLE:] An Address on the History of the Invention and Discovery of Spectacles. Being the Inaugural Address Delivered Before the Members of the Bradford Divisions of the British Medical Association

FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR &, laTER, PRESENTED TO THE BRADFORD HISTORICAL AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY BY HIS BROTHER. 12mo, pp. 27, [1], [24 leaves of plates]. Original quarter grey cloth, grey printed paper boards lettered in black. Bruising and wear to extremities, paper lifting at edges, chip to heel of bottom board, tape residue to both boards. Inscribed in brown ink to upper board: "With the authors compliments", 'X31' in blue pencil and black pen above. With a lengthy inscription to the front pastedown in blue ink by Eldred Oliver, "Solicitor, Bradford, Brother of the Author and President of the Society 1931-32". Bradford Historical and Antiquarian Society book label to ffep, signed and dated: "Eldred Oliver Esq., January 1938," Society library borrowing label to verso with blind library stamp, repeated on p.1. Else, clean and bright. Very good. JiscLHD locates four copies only (BL, UoBradford, UoLeeds & Welcome Library). A rather splendid inscribed copy of this scarce history of spectacles by George H. Oliver (Assistant Surgeon, Royal Eye and Ear Hospital, Bradford), "With the authors compliments," and later presented to the Bradford Historical and Antiquarian Society by his brother (and Society President, 1931-2) Eldred Oliver in 1938, who noted: "At the time this book was compiled it was the only work extant on the English language on the subject of the history of spectacles". George Henry Oliver, M.R.C.S. (1861-1924) was educated at the Leeds Medical School and Vienna, later spending "practically the whole of his professional life" in Bradford, where he eventually became consulting surgeon to the Royal Eye and Ear Hospital, Bradford. He held various appointments, including chair of his local Division of the BMA, and was due to be appointed vice-president of the Section of Ophthalmology of the BMA before his death; he was also a keen naturalist and an expert on spiders (BJO, 1924). Anon (1924) 'Obituary Notice: GEORGE HENRY OLIVER, M.R.C.S', British Journal of Ophthalmology, 8: p.351.…