LODGE'S PORTRAITS. ILLUSTRATED PLATES. FOLIOS. FIRST EDITION, 1823. Leather Library Set. Illustrious Personages of Great Britain: Complete in 12 volumes

London: Harding, Mavor, & Lepard, 1823 - 1834. FIRST EDITION / FIRST PRINTING. Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain. Engraved from Authentic Pictures in the Galleries of the Nobility and the Public Collections of the Country. With Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Their Lives and Actions. By Edmund Lodge, Esq. Written in pencil on the front end paper: 'The finest collection of steel engravings ever complied.' All plates are printed on india paper. 240 engraved portraits. FOLIO-SIZED. These measure 12 5/8 inches tall. Roughly 17 inches of shelf space. These are very large and impressive books. These are large heavy books, and weigh roughly 5 pounds each, unpacked. Bound in thick morocco leather. Raised hubs. Gilded spines. the top edges are gilded. Marbled end papers. Printed on thick quality paper. With 3 inch wide margins, and thick black ink. Extremely high quality, detailed steel engraved portraits. All portraits are present. VERY GOOD condition. The leather is very supple and fresh, all the hinges are fully attached. Printed on high quality paper that is near free of foxing. The plates do show some foxing, as shown in the images. Printed on quality paper that is fresh, bright, and clean. No writing except for pencil on fep. Some general rubs/light wear abrasion. An imposing set of volumes, each portrait accompanied by a short history of its subject. First editions of Lodge's greatest work, beautifully illustrated with 240 fine steel-engraved portraits. These portraits were praised by Sir Walter Scott as "a collection which at once satisfies the imagination and the understanding, showing us how the most distinguished of our ancestors looked, moved and dressed, and how they thought, acted, lived, and died" (Allibone, 1120). Portraits and biographical sketches include Locke, Newton, Cromwell, Wellington, Robert Boyle, Lord Nelson, Sir Thomas More, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Mary Stuart, Sir Walter Raleigh, Francis Bacon, etc. The steel engravings are after the original portraits by Holbein, Vandyke, and others. This is an impressive collection.