A very attractive set: tape stains to the endpapers of both volumes of the first part, with some foxing, particularly to the early leaves, joints slightly weak, a few splash marks to the bindings, upper fore edge corner bumped, but binding unworn and unsophisticated. The second part also has some very small tape stains to the endpapers and the binding has been skilfully recased, with repair the to head and tail and the upper hinge, although there is still a bit of a gap before the pictorial title page.
The first part has the bold contemporary ownership inscription of “F.N. Tyrwhitt-Drake Feb 1836” (the month of publication) on the title pages, with a pencil note below “lent to Reeves”: the Tyrwhitt Drakes, based in Amersham, were one of the wealthiest families of the 18th and early nineteenth centuries, commissioning the beautiful Shardeloes House from architect Stiff Leadbetter, with decoration by the young Robert Adam. The second part has an inscription (still attractive though someone has attempted to deface the family name) on the front paste-down endpaper “A trifling memento from Robert Fox to his brother Edward Christmas Day 1836.”
The Second Series was rushed out for the Christmas trade, and there is a baffling combination of variants, none of which Smith concludes as “having a consistent relationship”. Given that this copy is unambiguously early (it has a gift inscription dated only eight days after publication), it has no list of illustrations (this indicates an early issue for Eckel), the plates have the erroneous imprint “Volume III”, and the binding has no black panels on the spine.
