A Series of Picturesque Views of Seats of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland
London: William MacKenzie, n.d. [ca. 1880]. Six volumes; quarto; publisher’s full red morocco; thick beveled boards decorated in gilt and blind; all edges gilt; some scuffing; scattered foxing throughout, but overall in very good or better condition. Illustrated with 240 lithographs. A seventh volume was issued comprising facsimiles of autographs of subscribers. Like many subscription sets of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, these volumes were available in various bindings, and given the nature of subscriptions, are sometimes found incomplete. Publications such as these were meant to appeal to the social climbers and nouveau riches of the day, designed to assure buyers that they were high-minded men of taste, and presumably to similarly impress visitors. We don’t know how much these originally cost, but many subscription sets of the period were notably expensive luxury goods. Given their profusion, booksellers of our acquaintance in the mid-twentieth century often uncharitably referred to these sorts of books as doorstops.
[Book #25627P]
Price: $1,250.00