This beautiful edition of The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne by Gilbert White was published by Macmillan and Co in 1875. So the book is from the mid Victorian era.
The book is bound in green cloth over bevelled boards with elaborate gilt decoration to the front board and spine. It's a really striking binding and one that's hard to find as it's popular with collector's.
It's in good condition for it's age, but there is wear and crushing to the corners, with slight fraying to the cloth. The board edges are rubbed and bumped, and there is some minor marking to the boards. There is very slight air bubbling to the cloth over the back board. The spine shows some rubbing and dulling to the gilt, and there is also wear to the spine edges with some holes in the cloth. Crushing to the spine ends has caused splitting in the cloth.
Inside, the hinges are slightly cracked but the pages remain tightly bound. There is significant foxing to the preliminary pages and back pages but otherwise the pages are remarkably clean and bright with only light age toning. There is cracking to the gutter in places and some of the pages appear to have been separated by hand (they may have been uncut) and these are a little jagged along the edge. There is loss to the bottom corner of Page 47 but this does not reach the text, and also a one inch tear to the edge of page 45. There are occasional age stains in places.
Dimensions approximately 23cm x 16.5cm x 5.2cm.
Every book purchased will be hand wrapped in patterned wallpaper and string.
I try to use eco friendly packaging wherever possible. This includes 100% recycled jiffy bags, biodegradable bubble wrap, and paper offcuts from the newspaper industry.