The Waverley Gallery of the Principal Female Characters in Sir Walter Scott's Romances. From Original Paintings by Eminent Artists. Engraved Under the Superintendence of Charles Heath

London: Tilt and Bogue, 1841. First Edition. Full Morocco. Very Good. Unpaginated, with 36 hand-colored engravings of the heroines in Scott's novels, each plate accompanied by a text leaf with and telling passage that is telling of the heroines character, mettle, charm. Typically this work is encountered in black and white. The portraits epitomize ideals of beauty from the 1840s, and thus there are cosmetic similarities shared by all the ladies depicted, but through dress, expression, stance, a rich and variegated gallery emerges, and one can not gaze at these portraits without appreciating the rapture and awe Scott himself felt for his creations. The (truncated) book is bound in a lushly decorated morocco. Both boards have an intricate band of swirling S motives and flowers constituting its dominant elements, and in the center is an armorial lion surrounded by an elaborate lozenge of floral vines with a calligraphic flow to them. The spine is divided into six compartments, five of which have an elaborate tracery. This still comes through, although the spine and the joints are rubbed rendering the spine a little "tired" in its appearance. The interior is tight. Some light and occasional foxing, but mostly clean. One plate with heavier marginal foxing, and tissue guards can be foxed. (Inventory #: 001953)