[Rarebooks] fa: THE STORY OF NELL GWYN - Fine Zaehnsdorf Bindings - EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED w/180 PLATES

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, June 12. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/j6efela

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


Peter Cunningham: The Story of Nell Gwyn: And the Sayings of Charles the Second. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1852. First edition in book form. One volume bound in two, 8vo (19.5 cm), in signed Zaehnsdorf bindings of full brown crushed morocco with crimson morocco inlay borders, covers, spines and turn-ins elaborately tooled in gilt, top page edges gilt; extra-illustrated with ca. 180 portraits, views, etc.

A sumptuous presentation of this account of the life and times of "pretty, witty" Eleanor "Nell" Gwyn (1650-1687), the orange seller turned actress who became arguably the most important, and certainly the most famous, of Charles II's many mistresses. As evidenced by online bookdealer catalogs, this clearly is a work that well-heeled owners were fond of "grangerizing" with extra plates and engravings, but we can find no other example with nearly as many extra illustrations as this copy. As an added bonus, these extra portraits, views, etc., are listed alphabetically on an 8-page "List of Portraits, &c." that appears to have been specially printed for this copy and bound in after the table of contents. Some of the portraits have been identified in ink, presumably by the original owner, in the margins of their window mounts or, in a few instances, in the margins of the plates themselves.

Bindings with a few insignificant traces of rubbing; inner hinge of vol. I a trifle weakened but secure, occasional offsetting to and from the plates which also show some scattered foxing; small area of damp-stain to the upper gutter of a few leaves in vol. II; else clean and sound in a superb pair of bindings by Zaehnsdorf, with their stamp on the front free-endpapers. A unique and handsome copy. Front paste-downs with the  engraved armorial bookplates of [Thomas] McKean with the motto, "Mens sana in corpore sano."