EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VIGNETTES. [and] EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VIGNETTES, SECOND SERIES

London: Chatto & Windus, 1892, 1894. Illustrated Large Paper Edition. No. 192 OF 250 COPIES of "Vignettes" and No. 65 OF 200 COPIES of the Second Series, both SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. 245 x 197 mm. (9 5/8 x 7 3/4"). Two volumes..
ORNATE CONTEMPORARY AZURE BLUE MOROCCO, RICHLY GILT AND ONLAID, BY OTTO SCHULZE & CO. of Edinburgh (signed on front turn-in), boards with double gilt-ruled border enclosing a wide frame of roses--more than 200 of these onlaid red morocco blossoms appearing on the four covers--surrounded by hundreds of gilt leaves; raised bands dividing spines into six panels, three of these with double-ruled compartments containing a single red rose amidst a dozen gilt leaves, other panels with gilt titling, wide turn-ins featuring a gilt vine with berries, top edges gilt. With 23 plates, as called for, one of them (an uncommon depiction of Roger Payne in his bindery) in color. A Large Paper Copy. Front flyleaf with ink ownership signature of David Fyfe Anderson dated 1st June 1950. ◆Spines just slightly sunned, a hint of rubbing to extremities, trivial imperfections in the text, but A FINE SET, clean, bright, and fresh inside and out, THE LUSTROUS BINDINGS GLITTERING WITH GOLD.

The 32 essays printed here, all of which had appeared previously in periodical form, deal with Steele, Prior, Fielding, Hanway, Hogarth, Gray, Chesterfield, Walpole, Goldsmith, Cowper, Bewick, Richardson, Smollet, Johnson, and several others. The text is the work of Henry Austin Dobson (1840-1921), a poet of lighter verse whose extensive knowledge of the 18th century led him to write full-blown biographies of Hogarth, Goldsmith, Fanny Burney, Horace Walpole, Richardson, and Steele. (He also wrote biographies of the Frenchwomen Charlotte Corday, Madame Roland, the Princesse de Lamballe, and Madame de Genlis.) The illustrations here give faces to the names, which include not only writers, but others of interest to bibliophiles, such as bookbinder Roger Payne. These "Vignettes" were so popular that a third series was issued in 1896, and all three went through several editions on both sides of the Atlantic. Printed on high quality paper with immense margins, our especially attractive Large Paper edition is rarely seen in the marketplace, let alone in handsome morocco. Operating during the first 10 or 15 years of the 20th century, Otto Schulze was an Edinburgh publisher whose books sometimes appeared in bindings said to have been done by him. As in the case of other publishers and booksellers, such bindings often were done for, rather than by, the party whose name is stamp-signed on the volume. Bindings signed by Schulze are consistently attractive but are not common: since 1975, ABPC has listed six such (morocco) bindings, two of them described as "elaborate" or "extra." Since our volume says that the binding is by--and not for--Schulze, we can only assume that our publisher had an in-house binder. In any case, the set is remarkably handsome..