Lot 202: Smollett, Tobias. The History of England. Multiple Volumes. Full Calf Bindings.
A multi-volume set of Tobias Smollett’s The History of England. The volumes are uniform octavos bound in full brown calf leather. The boards feature decorative blind-tooled borders consisting of a repeating oval motif. The spines are structured with five raised bands, creating six compartments. The second compartment contains a red leather title label gilt-lettered HISTORY / OF / ENGLAND, and the third compartment contains a green leather author label gilt-lettered SMOLLETT. Both labels are framed by decorative gilt borders. The remaining spine compartments are decorated with gilt floral or star-like motifs. The edges of the text blocks appear to be sprinkled or marbled, though this is obscured by toning. The interior reveals printed text on laid or wove paper with significant foxing throughout.
Condition report:
The collection is in poor to fair antiquarian condition. Several volumes exhibit severe spinal deterioration, including missing leather sections exposing the underlying binding structure and paper linings (photo 1). Multiple boards are detached or loosely attached by the cords. There is significant scuffing, surface loss, and drying to the leather on all visible covers and spines. The corners are heavily bumped and rounded with loss of leather. The spine labels show varying degrees of chipping and gilt loss. The internal pages show heavy foxing, toning, and occasional damp staining consistent with age (photo 1).
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