Quarter Calf
London
London: William Sams. Quarter Calf. Very Good. N.d., 1834. Folio-sized, 14 by 10 inches, or 36 by 25 cm. 55 pp. 17 hand-colored plates. The subject matter of the plates is full of delight and surprise, and the composition and coloring is singularly tasteful and sublime. Highlights are surely the dancers on stilts, the blind man on the bridge, the juggler or the charcoal porters. But this is not an early, Parisian version of "London Poor" or the street life of Paris, for we encounter people from all walks of life, and we are taken to places more private, such as the interior of a swimming school! Perhaps the most exception aspect of this collection of plates is how it teems with life. Every plate has a real story to tell -- this is not a mere collection of costume or caricature! Most of the plates are watermarked 1822, and we find also 1824. Tooley 444. (This edition omits four plates from the 1822 edition.) Text leaves with scattered light to moderate foxing, more prevalent on title and some prelim pages, as well as tissue guards. Plates are generally clean, and the little bits of soiling in the margins of a few is trivial. One plate with margin chip. Corner dampstain affecting corner of early leaves. In sum, the defects of the text pages is more than compensated by the general luster of the plates.
(Inventory #: 001884)