[Rarebooks] fa: CHARLOTTE SMITH - EMMELINE, THE ORPHAN OF THE CASTLE (2 vols. w/ Plates)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, November 9. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/mc3n2m6

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


Charlotte Smith: Emmeline, the Orphan of the Castle. London: J. Robins and Co., Albion Press, Ivy-Lane, Paternoster-Row, [n.d., but ca. 1820]. One volume bound in two, 8vo (21 cm) in early/period half calf and marbled boards; 416; 417-816 pp.; with a portrait frontispiece and six engraved plates.

It appears the original owner had the single-volume novel bound in two separate volumes, hence there is no title-page in the second volume, which begins with p. 417 of the text. Modest rubbing to the boards and bumping to the corners, front joint of vol. I cracked but the front board is secure; scattered mostly light foxing to the contents, somewhat heavier on several plates; otherwise quite clean and sound, firmly bound. Engraved armorial bookplates of George M. Bird, who has also signed the first leaf of the text. Other owners' signatures and initials, the latter causing some bleed-through to the frontispiece.

A relatively early and surprisingly uncommon edition of Charlotte Smith's first novel, originally published in 1788. OCLC locates only two other examples of this edition in the U.S. (U of Wisconsin, Southern Illinois). Despite the publisher's claim on the title-page that the work contains a "life of the author," this apparently was never included.