A History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering in the Old Days

London: Chatto and Windus, 1886. First Edition. Full Morocco. Custom cloth clamshell box. Fine. Extra-illustrated, large paper, and a special Bayntun full brown crushed morocco onlay binding featuring a centerpiece of the Palace of Westminster. No. 85 of 111 large paper editions. With a gorgeous Bayntun onlay binding featuring a centerpiece of the Palace of Westminster (the current Parliament building). 4to. 26 by 21 cm. xxvii, [1], 403, [1] pp. Including folding frontis, nine of the additional plates are hand-colored, four of which are choice Gillray prints. Many of the plates are double paged, and a few are folding. Regarding the binding, all edges (truncated) gilt. Gilt ruled borders on boards -- six evenly spaced lines with jutting squared corners suggestive of a fortification design. These within a simple outer ruled border close to the edge. Five raised bands, with compartments decorated with ruled rectangles and corner dots. Turn-ins with corner abstracted floral decoration. Attractive armorial bookplate of Colonel Sir Harold Mitchell (1900-1983), businessman and politician who was at one point vice chairman of the Conservative Party under Churchill. He was created a baronet in 1945. The title became extinct with his death. Clamshell box has stains, especially heavy on one of the sides, and one spine edge is worn through with its cloth entirely lifted and rolling away, with frayed threads apparent and the underlying card exposed. Still, this box retains structural integrity and has clearly helped preserve the pristine quality of the book's extradordinary binding. Photo File. (Inventory #: 008070)