THE COURTSHIPS OF CATHERINE THE GREAT

London: T. Werner Laurie, [1905]. Third Edition. 222 x 145 mm. (8 3/4 x 5 3/4"). x, 337, [1] pp.
Very attractive brown morocco, gilt to an Arts & Crafts design by Sangorski & Sutcliffe (stamp-signed on rear turn-in), covers with double fillet border, central panels framed by gilt rules accented with gilt dots at corners and sidepieces, four intersections with gilt daisy, an inlaid green morocco dot at center of these blooms and at center of each side of frame, raised bands, spine compartments with gilt fillet frame, trefoil and dots at corners, gilt lettering, gilt-ruled turn-ins, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. WITH A TOTAL OF 31 ENGRAVED PLATES, six as called for (one of these a map), and EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED with 25 portraits of persons discussed in the book. Front pastedown with morocco bookplate of W. A. Foyle, Beeleigh Abbey. Tips and bottom edges of boards a little rubbed, isolated offsetting from inserted engravings, but quite an excellent copy, the text and original plates clean, fresh, and bright, and the binding lustrous and virtually unworn.

Gracefully bound and extra-illustrated, this is the Foyle copy of an entertaining biography of Russia's most scandalous empress, written by Philip Walsingham Sergeant (1872-1952), who composed numerous historical biographies, largely of royal women. In the present account of Catherine the Great, Sargeant provides a highly readable version of the life of the empress. As the title of the book suggests, great attention is paid to her various liaisons and controversies ("she was," Sergeant tells us wryly, "a woman whose life gave scandal the fullest opportunity to gather about her"), but also to her importance as a ruler and Enlightenment figure. The very pleasing binding, with its delicate detail and clean Arts & Crafts design, is the work of the leading firm of Sangorski & Sutcliffe. Francis Sangorski and George Sutcliffe trained with Douglas Cockerell before founding their own bindery in 1901. They continued in a successful partnership until 1912, when Francis drowned. Despite this loss, the firm grew and prospered, employing a staff of 80 by the mid-1920s and becoming perhaps the most successful English bindery of the 20th century. Our former owner, W. A. Foyle (1885-1963), was himself a bookseller on Charing Cross Road, where he co-founded with his brother the famous Foyle's Bookshop. Foyle was an avid and discriminating collector whose three large sales at Christie's held in 2000 were a bibliophilic highlight of the new century. The sum of $19 million for which William Foyle's personal library sold in July set a record for private European collections..