Price: £5,500
Subject: Literature
Published Date: 1880
Stock Number: 50635
(Your basket is currently empty)A Tale. In Three Volumes.
Description: FIRST EDITION, without the preliminary blanks in vols. ii and iii (present in vol. i), some finger marking and minor stains, a few slightly careless openings, tear in upper margin of one leaf in vol. ii approaching but not touching the text, pp. [ii], vi, 296; vi, 276; vi, 260, 8vo, original primary binding of red diagonal-fine-ribbed cloth, blocked in black on front with a 3-panel design incorporating 2 vignettes (designed by Hardy), blocked in blind on back with a 2-rule border, spine blocked in gold and black with standard, sword and bugle, and lettered in blind and gold, ex-circulating-library copy with evidence of labels removed from top panel on front covers, rebacked, original spines preserved though with minor loss at head and tail and with the loss of a terminal letter on the spine imprint of 2 vols., spines a bit dulled, recased, soundPublication Details: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1880
Notes: First edition in book form of Hardy's great novel of the Napoleonic war, written to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. Although there is no getting away from the fact that this is an ex-circulating-library copy, it is, in the scheme of things, not all that bad, respectable even. The binding here is Purdey's primary binding, variant with the period after Smith. Elder & Co. beneath the superscript 'o', as opposed to a dash. Purdy conjectures that this might represent the second binding order of 150 copies. Sadleir's Variant A....more
Bibliography: (Purdy pp.31-35; Sadleir 1115)
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