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.
Real Life in London,
London: Printed for Jones & Co., 1821. Item #06433
A Fine Early Pictorial Inlaid Binding by Bayntun of Bath
EGAN, Pierce. ALKEN, Henry, [illustrator]. DIGHTON, Richard, [illustrator]. ROWLANDSON, Thomas, [illustrator]. Real Life in London, or, The Rambles and Adventures of Bob Tallyho, Esq. and His Cousin, the Hon. Tom Dashall, through the Metropolis; Exhibiting a Living Picture of Fashionable Characters, Manners, and Amusements in High and Low Life. By an Amateur. Embellished and illustrated with a series of coloured prints, designed and engraved by Messrs. Alken, Dighton, Brooke, Rowlandson, &c. London: Printed for Jones & Co., 1821.
First edition, first issue. Volume I only.
Octavo. x, [3]-656 pp. Hand-colored engraved title and eighteen hand-colored engraved plates (including frontispiece).
Full crushed red morocco by Bayntun of Bath. Front cover with a very attractive onlaid figure of a London 'character' done in white, brown, black, green and dark red (a man dressed in clothing of the time standing outside a window). Covers with five gilt fillet borders tied by large and elaborate foliate corner pieces, spine compartments with gilt paneling and devices, gilt spine lettering, gilt board edges and turn-ins, marbled doublures and endpapers, all edges gilt. Housed in the original slightly worn fleece-lined, red cloth slipcase.
Two plates (p. 24 & 601) cut and mounted, crease to pp. 647/48. Housed in a cloth slipcase. Overall, a stunning copy of this color-plate classic in a spectacular binding.
Tooley 198.
Price: $2,750.00