I have been in the rare and antiquarian book business for over forty years; my family has been in the rare books business since 1876. Rare books are in my blood.
Coila's Whispers
London: F. Harvey, 1872. Item #03201
With a Frontispiece by Thackeray and Five Etchings by Cruikshank
An Early Twentieth Century Geometric Binding by Rivière & Son
FRASER, William, Sir. CRUIKSHANK, George, illustrator. RIVIÈRE & SON, binders. Coila's Whispers. London: F. Harvey, 1872.
Second Edition. No. 6 of fifty copies printed.
Small quarto (8 1/4 x 6 inches; 210 x 152 mm.). [ii blank], vi, 160, [i], [3 blank]. Etched half-title drawing by William M. Thackeray. Five full-page etchings on india paper by George Cruikshank.
Bound ca. 1920 by Rivière & Son (stamp signed on verso of front endpaper) in full dark blue crushed levant morocco. Both covers richly decorated in gilt with triple borders, each surrounding one hundred and seventy nine floral tools in a geometric design. Spine with five raised bands, richly decorated and lettered in gilt with the same floral tools. Double-ruled gilt board edges, decorative turn-ins, all edges gilt.
The five etchings by George Cruikshank on india paper, are five out of eight compartments of a large plate etched by G.C. for Sir William Fraser, in 1870, for Poems by the Knight of Morar.
"Only fifty numbered copies were issued of this edition, and consequently it is scarce." (Albert M. Cohn. George Cruikshank. A Catalogue Raisonné, p. 104.).
Sir William Fraser, KCB (1816-1898) was a solicitor and notable expert in ancient Scottish history, palaeography, and genealogy.
Price: $1,250.00