(10) Antique Leather Bound Volumes
Updated August 18, 2026
| Lot number | 228 |
| Estimate | 100.00 - 200.00 USD |
| Category | Antiques & Furniture |
| Auction | AUGUST AUCTION |
| Date | August 22, 2026 at 12:00 PM EDT |
| Auction house | Big Shanty Auction |
| Location | Marietta, Georgia |
Collection of ten late 18th- and early 19th-century English leather-bound volumes comprising five volumes from Robert Dodsley’s important A Select Collection of Old Plays and five volumes from John and William Langhorne’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives. The Dodsley volumes are from the original London edition printed for R. Dodsley in Pall-Mall in 1744, represented here by Volumes I, II, III, IV, and XII, with title pages printed in red and black and engraved theatrical title vignettes bearing the motto “Veluti in Speculum.” Dodsley’s celebrated anthology was issued in twelve volumes and assembled early English dramatic works that might otherwise have fallen into obscurity, making the series an important landmark in the preservation of Elizabethan and pre-Restoration drama. The accompanying five volumes are from Plutarch’s Lives, Translated from the Original Greek; with Notes Critical and Historical, and a New Life of Plutarch, translated by John Langhorne and William Langhorne, eighth edition, London, 1803; the edition was issued in six volumes, making this group incomplete by one volume. The books retain attractive period full-calf bindings with raised spine bands, contrasting red and dark-green title and volume labels, and extensive gilt tooling including floral rosettes, urn-and-foliate devices, horizontal gilt rules, and circular volume cartouches. Condition is commensurate with considerable age and use, including substantial rubbing, cracking and dryness to the leather, edge and spine-end losses, scattered surface losses and abrasions, weakened or partially and fully detached boards on some volumes, old repairs and tape or adhesive remnants, toning, foxing, spotting, staining, and general handling wear to the leaves; nevertheless, the surviving gilt decoration remains visually strong and the group presents particularly well as an early antiquarian library collection.
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