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(WASHINGTON, George) IRVING, Washington.
Life of George Washington.
First illustrated edition, "issued in [68] semi-monthly paper-covered parts." (BAL) Dates on the typographical and engraved half-titles vary from the listing provided by Blanck; "The publication history of this work is involved." Sabin suggests that "to meet the wishes of the "Illustrators", one hundred and ten copies were put forth" with portraits and plates, it can be presumed that by this he means Grangerizers and this set has been extensively extra-illustrated by the addition of numerous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century plates and portraits. Irving had begun work on this biography of his namesake - "the stupendous life of Washington …this boyhood impulse" (DAB) - in 1825, but completed the last volume just months before his death, it has always been "a popular book; being Irving it could not be otherwise." (Sabin) An attractive set.
5 volumes, large octavo (265 × 176 mm) Finely bound c.1900 in crimson crushed morocco by Affolter, titles gilt to spines, raised bands, spines gilt in compartments, French fillet gilt to the boards, top edges gilt, inner gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers. 118 engraved plates and maps, numerous wood-cut illustrations to the text, extra illustrated with 130 etched, lithographed and photographic plates, some of them eighteenth-century. Bookplates of James W. Ellsworth, coal-mining magnate, banker and numismatist to the front pastedowns, subsequent plate of M. & J. Moore, and book label of Abel E. Berland to the front free endpapers. Three bookplates to front pastedowns and endpapers in each volume, light restoration to endpapers and front fly-leaf, minor repair to hinges, overall a handsome set in excellent condition.
