Austen (Jane), Mansfield Park: A Novel, first illustrated ed...

Hammer

£250

Austen (Jane), Mansfield Park: A Novel, first illustrated edition, second Bentley edition, London: Richard Bentley, 1837, with Bentley's 'Standard Novels' half-title, an engraved vignette title-page and frontispiece (both of which are stained), pp: [iv], 424, [4] (adverts), splits and movement but holding in situ, occasional marginal blemishes not affecting text, some toning and foxing here and there,  original publisher's plum cloth (splits and fraying, but OK, also a little twist; front board loose but attached, inner-gutter split), gilt-lettered paper title label only (i.e. lacking the Standard Novels no. label), all edges uncut, 8vo.

Any of the first illustrated editions of Austen's novels in the original cloth is a rarity, and the 1837 reprint of Mansfield Park is scarce. Gilson comments 'So few of these reprints survive in libraries, and even fewer in original condition, that the following details must be incomplete...' (Gilson p. 225).

Provenance: Edward Lloyd (b. 1778) of Rhagatt Hall, Corwen, Denbighshire, Wales; E. Lloyd,/Rhagatt, contemporary printed book label to recto pastedown.