This lovely antique edition of Village Tales and Sketches by Mary Russell Mitford was published by Nimmo, Hay and Mitchell in 1887. So the book is from the latter part of the Victorian era.
Mary Mitford was an English author best known for Our Village which features a series of sketches of village life - her beautiful descriptions and memorable characters were based upon her own life and experiences living in a village. Life wasn't easy for Mary as her father was a gambler, and lost the original family fortune. Fate favoured the family for a while after this though as aged just 10 years old, Mary chose the winning ticket ‘2224’ (the sum made up her age) in the Irish lottery. The prize of £20,000 (around £2,000,000 in today's money) enabled her father to build a fashionable town house at 39 London Road, Reading and live in a style more suited to their background. Mary was an intelligent girl, learning to read before she was 3. She was a voracious reader, once mastering 55 volumes in only 31 days. The Mitford’s return to riches was short lived as Dr Mitford gambled most of it away in a few years. In 1820, the family moved to a labourer’s cottage in the nearby village of Three Mile Cross. Here they lived on the small remnants of her father’s fortune and the earnings of Mary’s developing literary career.
This lovely book is bound in grey cloth over bevelled boards, with delicate floral decoration to the front board and spine. It's in very good condition but the book does show a slight forward lean and there is wear to the corners. The boards show minor marking but the spine is more noticeably sunned and discoloured, with crushing to the spine ends which has caused minor splitting in the cloth.
Inside, there are some written initials on the front free endpaper and a small hole to the front hinge. The pages show light age toning and occasional minor marking. There are some superficial cracks to the gutter (including at the half title page) but the pages remain tightly bound. The book features beautiful black and white plates which add to the charm of this Victorian book.
Dimensions approximately 19.2cm x 13.5cm x 3.5cm.
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 bubbled wrap is biodegradable and the clear bubble wrap is 100% recyclable. I also reuse boxes when I feel it's appropriate (if the boxes are sturdy enough).