This beautiful edition of The Ladies Companion to the Flower Garden by Mrs Loudon was published by Bradbury and Evans. It is the 7th edition, published in 1858. It's in original publisher's cloth but the external binding shows quite heavy wear. All edges gilt.
There is wear to the corners, with minor loss to the cloth revealing the board beneath. There is some mottled discolouration to the cloth (old damp damage) and some other light marking. The spine is sunned, whilst crushing to the spine ends has caused splitting and loss in the cloth. Splitting to the external joints has been repaired by a past owner with glue.
Inside, there is cracking to the hinges but the pages remain tightly bound. There is a beautiful hand coloured frontispiece and a name in pen to the top of the title page. The pages are clean and bright with sporadic foxing - there is a dark smudge to the frontispiece. There are a handful of black and white illustrations within the text.
Dimensions approximately 17.7cm x 12.2cm x 2.5cm.
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).