This beautiful and scarce set of the works of Mrs Elizabeth Gaskell was published by Smith, Elder and Co (the publishing company best known for printing The Brontes works). The books vary in date, from 1900 to 1911, but are uniformly bound in contemporary half calf, with maroon cloth boards. The spine features five raised bands and gilt detail. Top edge gilt.
There are seven volumes in total including her most popular works Wives and Daughters, North and South, Ruth, Mary Barton and Cranford. Also included are Sylvia's Lovers and the short novellas Lizzie Leigh, The Moorland Cottage and The Grey Woman, amongst others. The books aren't illustrated but each volume has a black and white frontispiece.
The books are in very good condition, with light wear and scuffing to the leather - the surface shows minor loss to the surface of the leather at the corners and to the raised bands/spine ends. The spines are lightly sunned and there is minor marking to the boards and spines.
Inside, there are marbled endpapers and there are no signs of previous ownership. There is tanning to the corners of the free endpapers but the rest of the pages show minimal age toning. There is occasional creasing to the paper.
Dimensions of each book approximately 18.2cm x 12.7cm.
The box will be hand wrapped in patterned wallpaper and ribbon.
I use a range of eco friendly, 100% recyclable jiffy bags and boxes. 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).