This stunning edition of Life and her Children by Arabella Buckley was published by Edward Stanford in 1895. So the book is from the latter part of the Victorian era. Arabella Buckley was an English writer and science educator. She was a particular champion of Darwinian evolution but focused more on the mind and morals, rather than competition and physical survival. She wrote multiple books for children, presenting scientific fact in a story book setting, much like a mother educating her children.
The book is bound in a fine tree calf leather binding, with marbling to the text block edges and a school's coat of arms blind stamped in gilt to the front board. There is gilt tooling around the board edges and to the spine, as well as five raised bands to the spine. Tree calf leather is one of my all time favourite bindings. The leather is treated with acid to change it's colour and produce a beautiful tree like effect to the boards. Sadly tree calf leather began to decline in popularity before the First World War and by the 1920's, it was almost non existent.
It's in near fine condition, with only light wear to the corners and board edges. The top edge of the text block is dulled and there are some faint scratches and scuffs to the boards. The spine shows some minor rubbing.
Inside, the endpapers are marbled to compliment the text block edges and there is a presentation plate glued to the front pastedown. The pages show light age toning throughout with occasional fingerprint marks. A few pages have creasing to the bottom corner where the pages were folded inwards.
There are over 100 beautiful black and white illustrations which bring this lovely book on the natural world to life.
Dimensions approximately 19.2cm x 13.5cm x 3cm.
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.