This beautiful antiquarian book of A Young Man's Book of Knowledge was published for S Crowder in 1794. It is the fifth edition, published in the late 18th century. The first edition was mid 1700's. It was a popular educational guide that was designed to provide young men with a broad, practical education for navigating daily life, trade, and society.
It's bound in contemporary (19th century) half leather with gilt lettering to the spine. It's in very good condition but there is creasing and cracking to the surface of the leather spine, and loss to the surface along the spine edges. A slight split has started to the top of the front joint. The boards show significant wear and scuffing, with loss to the surface of the paper and leather. The corners are worn and bumped.
Inside, an early 19th century family have kept note of every child and the year they were born - this is across the front endpaper and one of the preliminary blank pages. You wonder if each child learnt from this very book. The pages show age toning and foxing throughout, with occasional ink marks. There is a tear and some slight loss to one page. There are a six plates - five of which are fold out plates.
Dimensions approximately 16.8cm x 10.7cm x 3.5cm.
The book will arrive hand wrapped in patterned wallpaper and ribbon. The bubble wrap I use is 100% biodegradable and the jiffy bags are recyclable.
Where possible, I use 100% recyclable paper tape, but sometimes I have to use clear plastic tape for extra strength.