Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$320.67 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: A very good copy of the second issue in a fine, unsigned, full tan morocco binding with gilt tooling and titling to spine. A.E.G. with bookseller's label to verso of ffep. Covers slightly spotted otherwise a very nice copy. Half title present and 6 page catalogue to rear.
Seller: Chris Phillips, Wiltshire, United Kingdom
LAMB, CHARLES.. Elia.. London Taylor and Hessey, 1823.
Price: US$352.74 + shipping
Description: 8vo, pp [6], 341, [1], [6, adverts], half title, uncut in original drab boards, ?respined with original paper label laid down, a very good clean sound copy, FIRST EDITION, SECOND ISSUE, with the half title and 2 addresses in the London imprint [q.v. Thomson LVIII]. This famous collection of essays, most of which had appeared already in the London Magazine, the rest in other periodicals, is now considered one of the classics of English romantic prose, though it was not received with any great favour at the time. It would not be reprinted until after Lamb's death in 1836, and Thomson quotes a Lamb letter of 1834 in response to a request for it 'The volume which you seem to want is not to be had for love or money. I with difficulty procuered a copy for myself.' Now, of course, it can be procured for money alone, and very little of it, while the sequel 'Last Essays' published by Moxon in 1833 is a common enough book in first edition. This first collection remains harder to find, especially in original boards; the retsoration to the spine of this one is so good that its extent and method is debatable, and the paper match - if that is what it is - so good that it is hard to detect. In short, we do not anticipate handling a better, more original, copy than this one.
Seller: J & S WILBRAHAM, LONDON, United Kingdom
[LAMB (Charles)]. Elia. [by Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, London, 1823.
Price: US$448.94 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Essays which have appeared under that signature in The London Magazine. 8vo. [3]ff, 341, [7] pp. Newly bound by Bayntun-Riviere in tan calf, the spine lettered on a red goatskin label and dated at the foot, marbled endleaves, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. The second issue of the first edition with the two addresses for Taylor and Hessey on the title-page. With the half-title and 6 pages of advertisements at the end. A few trivial spots, but a good clean copy. A second volume, The Last Essays of Elia was published in 1833.
Seller: George Bayntun ABA ILAB PBFA, Bath, United Kingdom
Price: US$1250.00 + shipping
Description: 2 vols. 341p; 283p. FINE BINDINGS BY BAYNTUN. A set of two hardcover books bound in full golden-brown calf with gilt-decorated spines, gilt dentelles, gilt foredges, and marbled endpapers. Very good condition overall! Edges of spines barely rubbed; the gilt detailing remains shiny and unmarred. In the ELIA volume, there are some tiny ink spots in the margin of page 7, and pages 285-290 have tiny closed tears which have been delicately repaired. Tiny orange smudge on the side foredge. Light tanning along the edges of the free endpapers. Both volumes' pages have mild age-spotting and tanning, but are otherwise unmarked and securely bound. Both volumes have two attached ribbon page markers. This copy of ELIA is the rare first edition from 1923. THE LAST ESSAYS OF ELIA is the first British edition from 1833; an unauthorized American edition was published earlier.
Seller: Kubik Fine Books Ltd., ABAA, Dayton, OH, U.S.A.
LAMB Charles. ELIA and LAST ESSAYS OF ELIA. 1823/1833, 1823.
Price: US$1282.67 + shipping
Description: 2 volumes, First editions, volume 1 the first issue, 8vo., volume 1 lacking the half title but with the 6pp catalogue, volume 2 with the half title, bound by Riviere in full blue crushed morocco, gilt, 5 raised bands, a.e.g., London,Taylor and Hessey, and Moxon. Upper cover of the second volume scuffed, otherwise fine copies.
Seller: Maggs Bros. Ltd ABA, ILAB, PBFA, BA, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition, first issue, published without the half-title, with the publisher's single-line Fleet Street address to the tile page, lacking publisher's terminal advertisements. Finely bound in full navy morocco, with five raised bands to the spine, decorative gilt stamping to the spine bands and compartments, spine lettered in gilt, boards ruled in gilt, all edges gilt, elaborate gilt turn-ins, maroon coated endpapers. Very good or better, with some light wear and rubbing to the extremities, a hint of toning to the spine, front hinge tender with some wear, front hinge repaired, bright and fresh pages. A clean copy of the scarce first issue in a lovely morocco binding. Elia is a collection of Lamb's popular essays, each of which was originally published in London Magazine. Specifically, it includes "The South-Sea House," "Christ's Hospital Five and Thirty Years Ago," "Dream-Children; A Reverie," and "Modern Gallantry," among others. Lamb, a long-time clerk for the British East India Company, began writing essays under the pseudonym "Elia," which he derived from a former colleague's surname. Lamb wrote in a colloquial and conversational style that made his essays beloved by his Edwardian and Victorian readers. Additionally, Lamb included many of his friends and family in his writing, loosely disguised by initials and pseudonyms. Mary Lamb, Charles' sister and co-author of the popular Tales from Shakespeare (1807), appears as "Cousin Bridget." This first collection of Lamb's essays was complemented with a second volume in 1833 entitled The Last Essays of Elia: Being a Sequel to Essays Published under that Name. Interestingly, while the American edition of the first collection, published by Carey, Lea, and Carey in Philadelphia, was preceded by this first British edition by five years, the American issue of the second collection preceded its British counterpart; less restricted by copyright laws in the United States, the American publishers were able to issue both Elia volumes simultaneously in 1828.
Seller: B & B Rare Books, Ltd., ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$2000.00 + shipping
Description: 2 volumes. Short 8vos, finely bound by Tout in full polished calf; ornate gilt-decorated spines with raised bands, inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, a.e.g. London: Taylor and Hessey, 1823 & London: Edward Moxon, 1833. First editions The first volume has a scuff mark on the front cover, and is a second issue, with two addresses in the imprint.
Seller: Argosy Book Store, ABAA, ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$6000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 2 volumes. 8vo. 1st editions, 1st issues. Presentation copy from Lamb to Shakespeare scholar J. Payne Collier, with Collier's inscription on verso of half-title page in 'Last Essays'. Rebound by Riviere in full dark green straight-grain morocco, with gilt decoration to spine, turn-ins, and margins of boards. A.e.g.; marbled endpapers. Minimal wear to joints. Later owner's bookplate to front paste-down of each volume. Slight foxing to first and last couple of pages in each volume. V2 has small, shallow staining to top edge of first and last couple of pages. V1 has occasional soiling or foxing to leaves, and foxing to fore-edge of textblock. A few leaves in V1 show faint diagonal creases to upper coner of a few leaves, now straightened (probably during rebinding), with tiny amount of loss to upper corner of one leaf. A handsome set overall. VG.
Seller: Strand Book Store, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.