The Complete Works of Robert Burns

Philadelphia: The Gebbie Publishing Company, 1896. Skibo Edition. Leather bound. Good. Octavos. 12 volumes. Illustrated with sixty etchings and wood-cuts, maps and facsimiles. Black leather bindings with gilt lined borders on the covers. Gilt bands, decorations, and titles on the spines. Red linen front and rear end covered end sheets. Top edges gilt. Gilt dentelles. Page ribbon markers present. Printed on thick paper stock. Untrimmed foredges and bottom edges. From the half title page - "Seventeen Copies of this Skibo edition have been printed for sale, each of which will be numbered. This Copy Is No. 16" (16 is written in red pen). Front and rear joints (truncated) and corners are rubbed on all the volumes. Front joint volume 1 is cracked with the board slightly loose. Light to moderate scattered foxing to the end papers. Light foxing to the contents. Condition of the set is good. Illustrated bookplate of "R. J. A. Boreman Invia Virtuti Via Nulla" pasted on the verso of the right front flyleaf. Collation for the 12 volumes is as follows:

Volume I Part I: [2], xvi, 200 pages, [2]
Volume I Part II: [2], viii, pages 201-402 pages, [2]
Volume II Part I: [2], x, 199 pages, [1] page blank, [2]
Volume II Part II: [2], viii, pages 199-400, [2]
Volume III Part I: [2], viii, 200 pages, [2]
Volume III Part II: [2], viii, pages 201-384, [2]
Volume IV Part I: [2], viii, 192 pages, [2]
Volume IV Part II: {2], ix, pages 193-400, [2]
Volume V Part I: [2], xiii, 206 pages, [1]
Volume V Part II: [2], xi, pages 207-416, [2]
Volume VI Part I: [2], ix, 212 pages, [2]
Volume VI Part II: [2], vi, pages 213-422, [2]. Regarding the bookplate and the previous owner of this set is some brief information provided by The University of British Columbia: In black ink. This bookplate displays a bespectacled man, presumably the originator, reading a book by candle-light. With no tonal variation, he is set-off against a black background, framed with a thin, asymmetrical, ornate border. Above the profile-portrait is the originator's name, and below, his Latin motto and a separate component in which a book number has been stamped in red.

R. J. A. Boreman was a West Virginian entrepreneur and book collector of some note. Among his business ventures, Boreman served as an insurance agent, was involved in oil prospecting and book publishing. He heralded from Parkersburg in Wood County, where he was a founding member of the Rock Run Oil Company, incorporated in 1886. In 1909 he bought the Ohio Valley Publishing Company, where he served as President until his retirement in 1921. He is mentioned in the 1922 volume, A List of Private Book Collectors in the United States and Canada, with subject interests in "Indians ; Virginia ; West Virginia ; Ohio Valley ; Personal and state histories ; Wars of U.S. (Inventory #: 25018)