Malory, Thomas; Andrew Lang; H. Oskar Sommer. Le Morte Darthur: The Original Edition of William Caxton Now Reprinted and Edited. David Nutt, London, 1889.

Price: US$1550.00 + shipping

Condition: Very Good

Description: Complete 4 book set. 33.5 x 25.5 cm. Bound into 3/4 navy blue leather over blue cloth. 5 raised bands to spine and leather spine labels with gilt lettering. Edited with an Introduction and Glossary by H. Oskar Sommer and with an essay on Malory's prose style by Andrew Lang. Marble endpapers. Limited to just 108 copies of this large paper edition, signed by the publisher, of which this is set #83. Volume 1, the main text is divided into two books. Volume II consists of introduction while volume 3 is "Studies on the Sources". Facsimile plate in volume 1, 5 charts (4 of which are folding) in volumes 2 and 3. Some scuffing to edges of leather and cloth. Facsimile of the original text of the Caxton Edition (PMM 29).

Seller: Midway Book Store (ABAA), St. Paul, MN, U.S.A.

MALORY, Sir Thomas.. Le Morte Darthur. The original edition of William Caxton now reprinted and edited with an introduction and glossary by H. Oskar Sommer. With an essay on Malory's prose style by Andrew Lang.. London: Published by David Nutt, 1889-91, 1889.

Price: US$3551.45 + shipping

Description: First edition of the first truly scholarly edition of Malory's Arthurian epic, number 14 of 108 copies numbered and signed by Nutt, this set from the library of a notable San Francisco family, handsomely bound by the Californian binders Hicks Judd. The 861-page first volume (bound here as two) prints word-for-word the preface and full text of Caxton's 1485 Morte Darthur first edition - Sommer was working from the Althorp copy in the British Library, one of only two then known. The latter two volumes comprise much bibliographical and critical discussion, including an essay by Andrew Lang, a list of names and places, and a glossary. Provenance: each volume has the bookplates of both the poet and 28th Mayor of San Francisco, Edward Robeson Taylor, and his eldest son, the printer and artist Edward DeWitt Taylor, to the front pastedowns. Three volumes in 4, quarto (333 x 266 mm). Contemporary red half morocco by Hicks Judd, marbled sides, titles gilt to spines, raised bands tooled in blind, blind rules extending to covers, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, others untrimmed. Facsimile plate in vol. 1, 5 charts (4 folding) in vols. 2 and 3. Two bookplates to each pastedown. Extremities occasionally bumped, a little recoloured, negligible marks to boards of vol. 2, light foxing to edges, very occasionally extending to text. A very good copy indeed.

Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom