MASTERMAN READY; or, The Wreck of the Pacific

1841. Written for Young People. [In Three Volumes.] London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans, 1841/1842/1842. 16 pp preliminary Vol I and Vol II ads dated April 1842; 32 pp terminal Vol III ads dated Oct 1842. Original pictorially-blindstamped blue-violet cloth.

First Edition of the first of Marryat's seafaring tales that were "written for young people"; in 1922 Sadleir observed, "MASTERMAN READY is as fresh to-day as when, eighty years ago [now 185 years!], it first appeared." As Sadleir also noted, Marryat himself drew the sketches from which this book's illustrations were engraved. This set has the Vol I binding in the earlier (non-uniform) state, in that the volume number does not appear on its spine (the volumes were published separately, and the subsequent two volumes were uncertain when Vol I was issued); however, some copies of Vol I do have earlier-dated ads. This is a remarkably near-fine set: as always with this color cloth, the spines are slightly faded, but there is only very minor wear (and the original yellow endpapers are intact). Sadleir 1583 (with Feb 1841 ads in Vol I only); Wolff 4522 (with Vol I ads dated Oct 1841, no Vol II ads, and Vol III ads dated Oct 1842). Provenance: each front endpaper bears the signature of C.A. Cheetham, and each front paste-down bears the armorial bookplate of Henry Frederick [Thynne], 6th Marquess of Bath (1905-1992), who had the dubious distinction of amassing the largest collection of paintings by Adolf Hitler.