Visit our ordering page to read about our guarantee, and for information on sales tax, shipping, and forms of payment. AUDUBON, JOHN JAMES: The Birds of America. New York: Roe Lockwood & Son. 1861. A text-only edition of the octavo birds in seven volumes. Reissued by J. W. Audubon to accompany the Bien Edition. Half morocco, some wear on boards, heads and tails of spines often missing, some foxing/staining but overall very good. SOLD Almost every volume of this set has had the boards skillfully reattached. On one (where I gather there were gaps in the spine leather), the spine seems to have been replaced with the original laid down as is common practice. On this book the repairs are more apparent than in others, but to me (not a real expert on these things), they look pretty good, the repairs not glaringly obvious. The leather is aged and beginning to crack in places, but is not fragile or friable. The boards are marbled but show wear. Below is a typical example. White and grey areas on the boards (which you may see in photos) are scars, not parts of the board design.
There are small gaps in the heads and tails of spine (top and bottom) on most books.
Marbled endpapers.
The 7-volume set on my bookshelves. To sum up, this set seems to have been well used. When I got them, they were not readable because of the condition of the covers, so I did what was necessary to stabilize them and make them useable. The set is now eminently readable. The paper is somewhat grey in tone (this seems to be the original tone -- it doesn't look like aging), but generally very clean with a minimum of edge toning, some minor soiling or staining here and there, almost no foxing. I noted a few instances of water stains, at least one case where the stains continue for several pages, but generally, this set seems much cleaner than later sets with plates I have reviewed. They look fine on the bookshelf, but they are by no means showy.
Last updated 02.28.09 |
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