Sir Walter Scott & Robert Burns Poems: each in Six Volumes -Twelve Volumes in Total. C 1895.
Highly unusual, as these are contained together in a double sized double-hinged and lidded Tartanware box (Similar to the four & six vol, boxes but twice the size). 11.5 x 9.7 x7.5cm.
Picture of Scott on left lid & a picture of Burns on the right lid. The box has been damaged in the past and repaired but is in good overall condition given age. It is covered in
MacBeth Tartan.
Scott volumes in green buckram with black armorial' image of claymore & sword crossed behind a portrait of Scott with dirks & flintlock pistols to either side and a powder horn below, and beneath this a picture of Abbotsford (Scott's house in the Scottish Borders at Melrose). Edges red. Elaborate gilt title to spines with plumed knights helmet above and thistles, horn & pike etc. beneath. And below this a recumbent lion.
The Lady of The Lake: The Lay of the Last Minstrel: Marmion: Rokeby: The Lord of the Isles: Doom of Devorgoil. Each with a different illustration opposite the title page.. Burns volumes 1-VI covered in (matching)green buckram with a ploughman & plough & two horses to front cover and with a geometric cartouche to the centre rear cover in black. Edges red. Gilt titles to spines with the Burns monument at Edinburgh to the bottom of spines. All twelve books are in very good condition. Each with a
different illustration opposite the title page. Previous owners dated inscription to each of the fly leaves, (dated 1895) which are in the Morris style of pattern. Printed by Fredrick A. Stokes and Brother; New
York, c. 1890's.
[These are identical in almost every respect to Bryce's published Pearl Editions: and no doubt done under license or similar agreement for the USA market].
Purchased from Black Swan Books, Richmond, VA, USA. 2015.
Never seen a similar double set previously anywhere to date.
Sold by a collector in a public auction at Bonhams, 9th November 2022.
#107