1820's~4x SELECT BIOGRAPHY~Captain COOK~Lord NELSON~WALTER RALEIGH~BENJAMIN WEST

Description: Scarce items. Selling as one lot are these four volumes from a series of twenty or so, on individual lives, first published as completed during the early 1820's, by Wetton & Jarvis and T.H. Whiteley of London - they were later republished as double volumes in 1834 by Henry Washbourne. Published in the series "Select Biography. A Collection of Lives of Eminent Men, who have been an Honor To Their Country", these are all first editions from this series dating variously from between 1820 and 1822, originally in the personal library of either one of the publishing partners or their family member as they have bookplates for "Joseph M. Wetton". The authors are described simply as "Various Distinguished Writers", so there is no certainty that the text of some of them was not published previously in some form by another publisher under another title, but certainly in the case of the American-born artist 'Benjamin West' volume it's unlikely as the volume states "Published Oct. 1st 1821 by Wetton & Jarvis" and West only died on 10th March 1820. The volumes here on sale, in order as seen in above photo's (L to R, T to B), with publication dates as printed at the bottom of each frontispiece, are: - 'The Life of Captain James Cook' - (1725-1795) - states "Published June 1, 1822 by Wetton & Jarvis, 65 Paternoster Row."'The Life of Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson' - (1758-1805) - states "Published Dec 1, 1820 by Wetton & Jarvis ..." - front cover detached and now held in place by a strip of white fabric tape (photo 9).'The Life of Sir Walter Ralegh [sic]' - (1552-1618) - states "Published March 1st, 1821 by Wetton & Jarvis ....".'The Life of Benjamin West' - (1738-1820) - states "Published Oct, 1st, 1821 by Wetton & Jarvis ...." - front cover detached. Please see my other items for more interesting and collectable items, including rare titles, as I will always try and combine the delivery to save you money. In the original matching half-leather and cloth hardcover bindings, On Sale as one lot are the above listed four volumes in the * Select Biography * series "A Collection of Lives of Eminent Men who have been an Honor to their Country", by various distinguished writers, published variously between 1820 and 1822 by Wetton & Jarvis and T.H. Whiteley, London, all printed by S. & R. Bentley, London, all are dated to their respective frontispiece page with no other editions or impressions noted elsewhere, and as they were originally in the personal library of the 'Wetton' family would probably have been the first editions, they're pocket-size volumes, approximately 6 inches x 4 inches, with 172, 180, 177 and 144 pages respectively. The matching original hardcovers have leather spines and corners with shagreen-effect purple cloth covered boards and gilt spine titles, they are variably rubbed at the edges and worn on the extremities, variably faded, there's some variable cracking along spine edges and two have the front cover detached as noted above, a dark mark (ink?) to the front upper spine corner area of 'Walter Ralegh', gilt reasonably bright with titles still legible, otherwise in reasonable condition for the 200-year-old books (see photo's 1, 2, 3 & 4). Insides are complete, page top edges trimmed other edges rough-cut and or untrimmed, apart from the two cases where the front covers have detached the endpapers are mostly not split and hinges sound with other covers well attached, each volume has the original "Joseph M. Wetton' matching bookplate to the front fixed endpaper although two have been scribbled over in blue biro (as photo's 13 and 9), no other writing or graffiti, the first fold of leaves of 'Nelson' had been originally poorly stitched resulting in splitting around the stitches at the spine affecting pages 1 to 16 (see photo 11) else bindings tight with pages well attached, a couple of leaves with margin tears else pages generally not torn, an occasional corner had been turned, endpapers and closed page edges age-toned and frontispieces and title-pages variably discoloured else not generally tanned, occasionally a pale speck else mostly not foxed, variable watermarking to frontispieces and title-pages and occasional dust-marking and usage marks, otherwise mostly reasonably clean and tidy. Please view all 15 photo's above as they form part of the description. Please view my other items for sale, as I will always try and combine deliveries. If you would like any further information please email to me via eBay.

Price: 35 GBP

Location: CORNWALL.

End Time: 2024-12-01T18:02:02.000Z

Shipping Cost: 43.56 GBP