[Rarebooks] fa: John Mills - THE STAGE COACH or THE ROAD OF LIFE 1843 - 3 vols./Morocco Bindings

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, March 5. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/z3hq52g

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

John Mills: The Stage Coach; or, The Road of Life. London: Henry Colburn, 1843. FIRST EDITION. Three volumes, 8vo, in 3/4 crimson morocco with gilt-tooled rules, lettering and decorations, top page edges gilt. With nine engraved plates after Steadfast (complete); bound without the publisher's adverts. Sadleir 1739.

A novel set in the world of early Victorian coaching. "It is not more true that all the world's a stage than that all the world's a stage-coach; and Shakspere[sic] would doubtless have said the one thing as well as the other, if he had enjoyed the advantage possessed by Mr Mills, of living in an age when the stage-coach was not unjustly ranked among modern miracles of improvement… Here we have the stage-coach…serving as a literary vehicle for all passengers who happen to have strong predilections for romance and revelry, and are disposed to seek all sorts of flying adventures…"  (Ainsworth's Magazine, vol. iv, 1843).

An appealing example of a rather uncommon title. Some rubbing and light sunning to the spines, toning to the plates and page edges, occasional scattered spotting and touches of soiling, owner's initials on front free-endpapers, else clean and sound, firmly and handsomely bound. Loosely laid in is a 1981 invoice for the books from the Bow Windows Book Shop in Lewes, Sussex.