This beautiful and scarce edition of The Ladies Library is only Volume One in what would originally have been a set of volumes. It was published in 1732 - so the book is almost 300 years old! It's such a thrill to hold something so old.
The Ladies' Library was a compilation of advice for women - including topics such as modesty, chastity and dress. According to the title page, it was written "by a lady" but it's never been conclusively proved who wrote it. Some attribute it to Lady Mary Wray, but others link it to Steele or George Berkeley.
The book is bound in full leather, with beautiful gilt tooling to the boards and spine. The spine also features five raised bands and all edges are gilt.
It's in good condition, with the most noticeable flaw being the splitting to the external front joint - despite this, the board is securely attached by the binding string. There is significant wear to the corners and edges of the boards, with loss to the surface of the leather. The boards also show some rubbing, marking and light discolouration. The spine is sunned, with chipping and faint cracking to the leather. There is some loss and splitting to the leather at the spine ends.
Inside, the endpapers are marbled and there is a written inscription on one of the preliminary blank pages. The pages show age toning and occasional foxing, but are remarkably clean and bright for their age.
The old English text shows the letter s looking more like the letter f. The long s, ⟨ſ⟩, is an archaic form of the lowercase letter s.
Dimensions approximately 17.1cm x 10.5cm x 2.8cm.
The book will arrive hand wrapped in patterned wallpaper and string.
I use a range of eco friendly, 100% recyclable jiffy bags and boxes, and whenever possible I use brown paper tape. The green bubble wrap is oxo-degradable and the clear bubble wrap is 100% recyclable. I also reuse boxes when I feel it's appropriate (if the boxes are sturdy enough).