Sterling Silver, Antique Flintlock Shotgun, Collectibles Estate Sale Auction
Lot 75:
Description
A set of volumes comprising the collected works of James Russell Lowell, published in 1891 by Houghton, Mifflin and Company at The Riverside Press, Cambridge. The collection includes Literary Essays, Political Essays, Literary and Political Addresses, and Poems. The volumes are bound in three-quarter dark blue-green morocco leather over marbled paper-covered boards, with matching marbled endpapers. The spines feature five raised bands and are decorated with elaborate gilt-stamped floral and foliate motifs. Titles and volume numbers are also stamped in gilt. The top edges of the pages are gilt, while the remaining edges are untrimmed. A title page for one volume of Literary Essays features a publisher device with a tree and the motto bien ou rien. A frontispiece portrait is present in the first volume, protected by a tissue guard. The volumes are in an octavo format.
Condition report:
The leather bindings show visible rubbing and shelf wear, particularly at the spine crowns, heels, and corners (photo 1). Minor surface scuffing is present on the marbled paper of the boards (photo 2). Internally, the pages show light age-toning, and there is visible foxing on the tissue guard covering the frontispiece (photo 3). Two paperclips, one purple and one silver, are currently attached to the frontispiece and title page of one volume, creating potential for metal staining and localized indentations (photo 3). The gilt decoration on the spines remains largely bright and intact.
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