The Three Tours of Doctor Syntax. The First Tour in Search of the Picturesque. The Second Tour in Search of Consolation; The Third Tour in Search of a Wife. (3 volumes)

London: Nattali and Bond, 1855. Ninth Edition. Full Calf. Very Good Plus. Thomas Rowlandson. An attractively bound full calf set of one of Rowlandson's most quintessential works, and easily his most popular into the twentieth century. 8vo. 25 by 16 cm. 81 hand-colored plates. All volumes with title leaves and a leaf with the list of plates contained therein. First and third volumes with two title leaves, one with a hand-colored illustration. (Second volume missing the primary title leaf -- the one with the vignette, as always the case with the ninth edition.) After each List of Plates begins the pagination of the three volumes, which is 272, 277 and (truncated) 279 pp. Stamped in small print on otherwise blank preliminary is the name of Charles E. Lauriat Co. of Boston. The company was a highly successful bookstore chain that finally went under in the 1990s. We think it likely that the company was responsible for the binding, but we can not assert this with certainty. We also can't date the binding with any sort of precision but it is our sense that it is probably early 20th century. All volumes with two pasted ownership bookplates, one, an attractive armorial bookplate. The bindings have minor rub spots on their joints and along their edges. Early leaves in first volume have a fair amount of foxing, after which, there is negligible foxing in the remainder of that volume and the others. The set is mostly clean. The title leaves are more browned or age toned than one might want, but we have not seen a ninth edition without this issue. Generally the leaves retain a freshness. (Inventory #: 20365)