Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$1250.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Complete in three volumes, now in a later binding by Bayntum-Riviere of Bath England. Rebound without publishers ads. Lovely green Moroccan binding with raised spine bands and leather spine labels. Six spine compartments, nicely decorated, and with double lined outside dentelles. Gilt stamped dentelle inside boarder. All edges of text are gilded. Covers show some very slight rubbing and slight scuffs. All volumes remains tight and very clean. A particularly lovely set.
Seller: Lloyd Zimmer, Books and Maps, Chanute, KS, U.S.A.
Price: US$1411.59 + shipping
Description: 3 vols.; Very attractive half maroon morocco with gilt titles & raised bands on spines & marbled boards. Size 7.5 x 5 inches A very nice set in a virtually fine binding. In very good condition. Some very light rubbing on spine edges. A few pages foxed, else mostly very clean. 3 hf.titles. this copy bound without 32pp. publisher's catalogue at end of vol.3. Top edge gilt. New Plain endpapers. [Purdy 36; Sadleir 1109; Wolff 2980] The novel in its final form was publ.in England in an edition presumably of 1,000 copies, the first week of Dec. 1881. (The Am.ed.precedes this one by more than a week and was the serial version-reset- as it had been appearing in HARPER'S, without Hardy's final revisions).
Seller: PROCTOR / THE ANTIQUE MAP & BOOKSHOP, DORCHESTER, United Kingdom
Price: US$1693.91 + shipping
Description: Half titles. Handsomely bound in contemp. half green calf by Hatchards of Piccadilly, matching green cloth boards, spines directly lettered & with compartments in gilt; spines uniformly faded to brown. With the original cloth bindings bound at the end of each volume. Armorial bookplate of Oliver Brett on leading pastedowns; stamp of the Barrow-In-Furness Working Men's Club on the first page of text in each vol. v.g. See Purdy p36; Wolff 2980. The novel was commissioned by Harper's for the European edition of their New Monthly Magazine and was first published in book form in New York, November 1881, pre-dating the English edition by a week. The copy of Oliver Sylvain Baliol Brett, 3rd Viscount Esher, 18811963.
Seller: Jarndyce, The 19th Century Booksellers, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$2035.00 + shipping
Description: 3 volumes. First English edition. 8vo, bound in antique three-quarter blue morocco over blue marbled boards, the spines are gilt lettered in two compartments and have wide gilt decorated raised bands, t.e.g., the original slate gray cloth to the upper cover and spine of Volume I has been retained and bound in. Now housed in a fine morocco backed foldover case. 312; 275; 269 pp. A handsome and well preserved set, internally fine with just a bit of normal age mellowing to the text, the original half-titles retained, the antique bindings with some evidence of age or use at the joints and extremities. FIRST EDITION OF HARDY'S MOST CONTEMPORARY NOVEL. Unlike his Wessex novels, this is work is set in the more technologically advanced contemporaneous age, so the plot exhibits devices uncommon among Hardy's novels, such as falsified telegrams and faked photographs. It was originally published in monthly installments in the European edition of Harper's New Monthly Magazine, from December 1880 to December 1881. Due to this arrangement Harper was able to publish the work in book form first, but this English edition was only issued a few weeks later and contains revisions made by Hardy not included in Harper's issue. It is the only three-decker issue published and the print run is presumed to be only around 1000 copies.
Seller: Buddenbrooks, Inc., Newburyport, MA, U.S.A.
Price: US$2611.45 + shipping
Description: COMPLETE in 3 vols; Finely bound, by Stikeman & Co. (bookbinders) Bound in contemporary half calf red morocco bindings. Spines with raised bands, decorative in gilt. Compartments decorated, ruled and lettered in gilt. Marbled boards. Marbled endpapers. SIGNED BINDING by Stikeman. In very good near fine condition. Beautiful bindings. Two very light scuffs on two spine bands. Private bookplate on front endpapers (John F. Talmage) Two tiny small dots on two top gilt edges. Inside some very light foxing, else generally very clean & tight. WIth original Cloth covers all bound in at the rear of each volume. Size 18.5cm x 13cm [iv], 312; [iv], 275; [iv], 269 pp. Half-titles. With the 32 page publisher's catalogue at the end of volume III The novel in its final form was publ.in England in an edition presumably of 1,000 copies, the first week of Dec. 1881. (The Am.ed.precedes this one by more than a week and was the serial version-reset- as it had been appearing in HARPER'S, without Hardy's final revisions).
Seller: PROCTOR / THE ANTIQUE MAP & BOOKSHOP, DORCHESTER, United Kingdom
Thomas Hardy. A Laodicean or The Castle of the de Stancys THREE VOLUMES. Sampson Low, London, 1881.
Price: US$2887.35 + shipping
Description: 8vo. 1st ed. 1881. 3 vols. In publisher's grey sand-grain cloth (probable first issue). With earliest state half title and blank leaf (271/2) at end of vol 3. Wanting (as often) 32pp publishers' catalogue in vol 2. PURDY p36. All spines relaid with modest loss of original cloth top and tail. Cloth slightly rubbed and edges scuffed. Insignificant evidence of removal of circulation library book plates from rear boards. Some age toning and sporadic foxing to text as usual. In spite of the above a very presentable set. Images available on request.
Seller: Bath House Books, Ditchingham, United Kingdom
Price: US$4555.59 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition, 3 volumes of A Laodicean and one of 1000 printed. First published serially in the European edition of Harper's New Monthly Magazine from Dec 1880 to Dec 1881, and in America in Harper's from Jan 1881 to Jan 1882. Hardy was ill and confined to bed for much of the composition of the novel, dictating the majority to his wife. He later burned the manuscript. Re-backed preserving the original grey/green spines and cloth. Replaced end papers. Three rule border and central publishers monogram on the boards. Gilt lettering on the spines. Rubbed and marked boards. Slight lean to the volume 3. Volume 3 with final blank pages instead of catalogue listings. Volume 2 with foxing and marks at the beginning and end. Volume 1 with tear to page 201 and loss to outer margin of page 89. Small loss on margins to page 77. Pencil signature on the front free page. 8vo (Purdy p.36)
Seller: Rare And Antique Books PBFA, Exeter, DEVON, United Kingdom
Price: US$4684.46 + shipping
Description: In three volumes. Pp. [iv]+312+[iv]+276(last blank)+[iv]+268(last blank); slate-grey sand-grain cloth, spines lettered in gilt, boards with triple blind rule border and publisher's monogram in blind at centre, slightly soiled and rubbed, edges lightly worn, corners bruised, spine cloth slightly bubbled Volume I, the spines chipped at extremities; top edges uncut; pages browned, upper hinge starting Volumes I & III, a few leaves faintly creased, a couple of edge chips, a little light foxing and occasional soiling; Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, London, 1881. First U.K. edition, primary binding. Purdy p. 36; Sadleir 1109. *Without the 32 page publisher's catalogue described by Purdy as 'occasionally bound in at the end'. Originally published in monthly instalments in the European edition of Harper's New Monthly Magazine, from December 1880 to December 1881. During the serialization, Hardy became ill after the first 13 chapters had been printed, and had to dictate the rest of the novel to his wife, from his sick bed. In book form, the novel was published in America in November 1881, about a week before the English publication.
Seller: Kay Craddock - Antiquarian Bookseller, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Price: US$6545.00 + shipping
Description: 3 volumes. First English edition. 8vo, bound in the publisher's original slate gray cloth, the covers blocked in blind, the spine panels lettered and decorated in gilt. Now housed in a fine morocco backed foldover case. 312; 275; 269 pp. A handsome and especially well preserved set, the cloth retaining its original handsome quality. internally fine with just a bit of normal age mellowing to the text, the original half-titles retained. FIRST EDITION OF HARDY'S MOST CONTEMPORARY NOVEL. Unlike his Wessex novels, this is work is set in the more technologically advanced contemporaneous age, so the plot exhibits devices uncommon among Hardy's novels, such as falsified telegrams and faked photographs. It was originally published in monthly installments in the European edition of Harper's New Monthly Magazine, from December 1880 to December 1881. Due to this arrangement Harper was able to publish the work in book form first, but this English edition was only issued a few weeks later and contains revisions made by Hardy not included in Harper's issue. It is the only three-decker issue published and the print run is presumed to be only around 1000 copies.
Seller: Buddenbrooks, Inc., Newburyport, MA, U.S.A.
Price: US$17500.00 + shipping
Description: 3 vols. 8vo, publisher's gray cloth, gilt-lettered on spines, each preserved in a custom quarter morocco slipcase and chemise. Three distinguished bookplates on each front pastedown and a fourth, the Rockwell Kent bookplate of Frederick B. Adams, in each chemise. First English edition. This is as nice a copy of "A Laodicean" as one can reasonably hope to find. The volumes are ever so slightly shelf-slanted. A beautiful set. Laid in is a two page ALS from Thomas Hardy, January 16, 1882 to Bernhard Tauchnitz, advising the publisher that he has directed Williams & Norgate to send proof sheets of "A Laodicean" to him, "that you may form an estimate of what the story is worth to you." Former owner of this set, Frederick Adams, has laid in two additional notes, to the effect that Tauchnitz published Laodicean later in 1882, and that this was also George Barr McCutcheon's copy, although there is no indication of that in the volumes.
Seller: Jeffrey H. Marks, Rare Books, ABAA, Rochester, NY, U.S.A.