Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$5000.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: 1st edition. 2 volume set, complete. A Good+ set. 8vo. {Vol.1] 313, (2); [Vol.2] 312, (5) pp. Bound in the publisher's blue cloth with title and decoration in black. Floral end papers. Moderate edge wear, particularly at the spines' crowns. Vol.1's front board a bit rubbed, with uneven sunning. Front joints just beginning to loosen. A very scarce set, in the original cloth. Part of Hardy's Wessex books, with Casterbridge taking Dorset's place. This first edition was of a very small run of 750 printed, the result of a reader from Smith and Elder not being impressed with the story, as it had a lack of gentry (Claire Tomalin, Thomas Hardy: The Time-torn Man, 2006). Considered to be one of Hardy's masterpieces.
Seller: Frey Fine Books, Rougemont, NC, U.S.A.
Price: US$5000.00 + shipping
Description: First edition. [iv], 313; [iv], 312 pp. 2 vols. 8vo. Purdy, pp. 50-54; Sadleir 1111 Bound in forest green half morocco backed marble boards with gilt ruling, gilt titles on five-banded spine, and t.e.g. Marble endpapers with handsome bookplate of heiress Gustavia Senff on upper pastedowns; near fine [iv], 313; [iv], 312 pp. 2 vols. 8vo
Seller: James Cummins Bookseller, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Hardy, Thomas. The Mayor of Casterbridge. Smith, Elder & Co, London, 1886.
Price: US$6500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Two volumes. 313, 312. First edition. Finely bound with leather spine and corners over red cloth, top edge gilt, raised bands and gilt tooling to spine, top edge gilt; bound without half-titles or ads. Title page in Volume I shows restoration at gutter. Contents clean, with several edge chips professionally filled in, lightly toned and with light, sporadic foxing. Published in a small print run of just 758 copies, of which only 650 were bound up. A lovely set.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
Price: US$11000.00 + shipping
Description: First edition. [iv], 313, [1], [2, ads]; [iv], 312, [4, ads] pp. 2 vols. 8vo. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL CLOTH. The first edition in publisher's cloth of perhaps Hardy's greatest novel -one of only 758 copies printed, of which just 600 were bound. In uncommonly fresh condition. Purdy, pp. 50-54; Sadleir 1111 Publisher's smooth blue cloth, blocked in black on covers and titled in gilt on the spine, gray floral endpapers. A very good copy, with light edgewear and scuffing to covers, bubbling to cloth on vol. I front cover. Bookplate of Roger H. West and his signature to half-titles. In custom blue cloth slipcase [iv], 313, [1], [2, ads]; [iv], 312, [4, ads] pp. 2 vols. 8vo
Seller: James Cummins Bookseller, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.