Description
8vo, 474pp. Hardcover with original leather cloth on boards and embossed gilt to front and spine with five raised bands and a clear title on dark brown background on the upper spine. Beautiful marbling on all edges and endpapers but with significant shelf wear and scuffing to corners though no major damage or tears but early hinge wearing is seen at fep’s. Apart from the first and last pages , no foxing present through the body of the text block, surprisingly the text remains in very good or better condition given its age and is illustrated with two hundred woodcuts as well as one handwritten prior owner name written on the page preceding the half-title from 1882. So overall in very good condition. Certainly rare in Australia. Abridged from the larger dictionary, this all inclusive work was for years still utilised as a major reference book throughout the world. Still an attractive and tight binding that is at home on the shelf of any amateur archeologist or student of antiquities.