(12) Literary & Volumes, 1794-19th Century

Updated August 18, 2026

A handsome assembled collection of twelve late 18th- and 19th-century literary and historical volumes, many retaining period or near-period leather bindings richly decorated with gilt tooling, raised bands, ornamental compartments, and contrasting spine labels, the group spanning English and French literature, poetry, historical fiction, and royal biography. Included are Tobias Smollett’s translation of Alain-René Lesage’s The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, Cooke’s Edition, Volumes I-II, London, printed for C. Cooke, the spines dated 1794, a two-volume edition consistent with Cooke’s late-18th-century issue; (AbeBooks? ) Frances Burney’s Evelina; or, The History of a Young Lady’s Introduction to the World, a New Edition in two volumes, London, printed for W. Lowndes, 1808, with both Volumes I and II present; (Google Play? ) three illustrated volumes of William Cowper’s poetry printed for John Sharpe, Piccadilly, comprising The Task and Table Talk and Other Poems, dated 1817, and The Minor Poems of William Cowper, dated 1818, each with engraved title/frontispiece imagery after R. Westall, R.A., the Task edition independently documented as Sharpe’s 1817 printing; (Archive.org? ) W. Harrison Ainsworth’s The Tower of London: An Historical Romance, in two volumes, including Volume II identified as the Ninth Thousand, London, Chapman and Hall, 1850, the pair bound in dark green leather with gilt-decorated spines; two volumes from François Coppée’s Oeuvres, Poésies 1864-1869 and Poésies 1869-1874, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, Éditeur, attractively presented with decorative bindings and the publisher’s characteristic title typography; and Dr. John Doran’s Memoir of Queen Adelaide, Consort of King William IV, London, Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1861, an early Victorian royal biography whose 1861 Bentley publication is independently recorded. (Yandex Books? ) The collection is especially appealing as a decorative library grouping, with numerous volumes displaying elaborate gilt floral devices, gilt rules, lattice tooling, marbled or patterned elements, and richly patinated calf or morocco surfaces. Condition is consistent with age and use throughout, with rubbing and scuffing to leather, edge and corner wear, occasional losses or abrasion at spine extremities and joints, fading and darkening, scattered foxing and toning to contents—particularly evident in the Cowper volumes—and other minor handling marks, while the photographed title pages remain legible and the group presents with considerable period character. Sold as a twelve-volume antiquarian collection and not individually collated for completeness.

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