The Sketch Book Geoffrey Crayon Washington Irving Book

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The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.

"ADVANCE EDITION"

by Washington Irving

This is a piece of historic literature!

The problem is, we are having difficulty discerning its date but it appears to be a first printing and possibly the first American printing although again we do not have any printed evidence in this volume because this was before standardized copyright pages were used from what little we can tell. But to be fair, this may be before the first American printing because the spine was published with this inscription by the publisher: ADVANCE EDITION.

*** This may have been in the first set of volumes to be published in America for Irving given its ADVANCE EDITION status. ***

The pages show age tanning and are somewhat brittle. Still, the book is holding up well. The brittleness helps to date this back to the 1800s and probably early 1800s.

The title page simple lists the following below the title and author:

CHICAGO,

DONOHUE, HENNEBERRY & CO.

407-429 Dearborn Street.

Following the title page is a dedication page and following that is a page entitled: ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION and at the bottom of the text it says, London, 1819.

The next page is entitled, ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST ENGLISH EDITION with at the bottom a tagline appears that reads February, 1820.

So we know the book is at least an 1820 edition. What we do not know is whether or not a subsequent edition appeared with these two pages are not, but they sure make us think this is a first edition and printing. We would never guess at such an important declaration, however, hence we are giving you above what we see and you can help draw your own conclusion.

By the way, there were lated editions of this book published in the 1800s, as late as 1890 from what little we can find, but these had color ink used on the title page and this is far older than those volumes. How much older we can only guess as we have above, but we think it is an educated guess this is a true 1820 edition.

Condition

This volume rates a Good Condition. The cover boards show only light fading as the original reddish-brown coloring with black design and text is all still plainly visible.

Light color rubs appear at the edges. The spine shows the most color fading.

The book retains its original square shape nicely. As we said the pages are brittle but not all falling apart. Still, a few minor nicks and tears are present but these reside only where the pages meet the spine in the first few and final 2-3 pages. At the front and back inside covers you can sort of see into the spine's netting but the cover boards and spine are still nicely attached.

Inside no pages are torn or loose at all.

Inside the front cover board someone once neatly penciled "Belongs to the library of Harry Vallin, No. 1."

No jacket exists and we are unsure if one was ever issued given how ornate the cover board designs are.

Publisher:   Donohue, Henneberry & Co.

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