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.
Life of George Cruikshank in Two Epochs, The
London: Chatto and Windus, 1882. Item #04315
The Standard Authority For Over A Century
Handsomely Bound by Rivière for Henry Sotheran
[CRUIKSHANK, George]. JERROLD, Blanchard. The Life of George Cruikshank in Two Epochs. With Numerous Illustrations. In Two Volumes. London: Chatto and Windus, 1882.
First edition. Two octavo volumes (7 3/8 x 5 inches; 187 x 127 mm). xvi, 284; viii, 280 pp. Eighty-four black and white illustrations including two frontispieces and twenty plates.
Bound ca. 1882 by Rivière in full red morocco, spines with five raised bands lettered in gilt in compartments, gilt ruled board edges, decorative gilt turn-ins, marbled end-papers, top edge gilt, others uncut. Stamped in gilt on front turn-ins "H. Sotheran & Co. London". A fine set.
"Jerrold's two volumes reigned for over a century as the standard authority" (Patten), until Patten's definitive two-volume biography, George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art (1996).
Blanchard Jerrold (1826–1884), journalist and playwright, was acquainted with Cruikshank through his father, Douglas, a friend of Cruikshank and also a journalist and playwright. "In London Jerrold belonged to a set of young bohemian journalists, miscellaneous writers, and general bons viveurs, including George Augustus Sala, Peter Cunningham, and two of Dickens's younger brothers, that met to dine ‘three or four nights a week at certain favourite restaurants’". (G. A. Sala, Life and Adventures, 1, 1895, 441).
Price: $1,250.00