Fine Books and Manuscripts

[Fine Binding] Boswell, James. The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Oxford: William Pickering, 1826. First Pickering edition. 4-vol. set. Later half calf, raised bands with gilt rolls, blind stamped lozenges in compartments with gilt tools and titling framed in gilt fillet, t.e.g., marbled endpapers. Engraved portrait frontise of Boswell in vol. 1 with two large folding plates of Johnson’s handwriting in facsimile. Tall 8vos. Plates foxed with dampstaining to frontise, occasional spotting to margins; few unevenly cut. This is the first edition of ‘The Life of Samuel Johnson’ to include a portrait of Boswell as a frontispiece and was considered at one time “the most beautiful that has yet to appear.”