[Rarebooks] fa: PORTRAITS, MEMOIRS AND CHARACTERS OF REMARKABLE PERSONS - Caulfield - 7 vols. 1813-1820

[ArCh]

Listed now, auctions ending MONDAY, November 13. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/yb2v6yum

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


James Caulfied [ed.]: Portraits, Memoirs, and Characters, of Remarkable Persons, from the Revolution in 1688 to the End of the Reign of George II. Collected from the Most Authentic Accounts Extant. London: H. R. Young and T. H. Whitely, 1819-20. First edition or first edition thus. Four volumes; 155 engraved plates on india paper and mounted, including 15 by George Cruikshank. Cohn 125. [WITH:] Portraits, Memoirs, and Characters, of Remarkable Persons, from the Reign of Edward the Third, to the Revolution… A New Edition. London: Printed for R. S. KIrby, 1813. Three volumes bound in one (despite the spine reading “Vol. I. II.”); 109 engraved plates.
Together, seven volumes bound in five, complete. Large paper sets, royal 8vo/small folio (30.5 cm), uniformly bound in later full russia with gilt-tooled fleurons, spine titles, and turn-ins; marbled page edges and endpapers; silk ribbon markers. First two vols. with some rubbing, scuffs and chipping to the spines and joints, front hinge of vol. I cracked a bit at the bottom but secure, sunning to the spines of the last two vols.; first set with offsetting from the plates, a few occasional light touches of soiling to the leaves, otherwise the contents are exceedingly clean and fresh with nice wide margins, securely bound. Front paste-down with the armorial bookplates of Sir William Eden, Bart. A splendid set.

Caulfied’s lively and lavishly illustrated rogue’s gallery of pimps, prostitutes, thieves and thief-takers, freaks, traitors, spies, con men and women, murderers, midgets, frauds, hucksters, pickpockets, prestidigitators, etc., etc. The second set mentioned above (actually published first) mostly consists of handsomely executed reproductions of contemporary popular prints and handbill illustrations. The first set contains many signed, original illustrations, including 15 engravings executed by George Cruikshank.