Edinburgh: Shepherd & Ellio, 1857. Octavo, xii, 500pp, albumen-print portrait frontispiece by J. G. Tunney, 152 wood-engraved illustrations, deluxe full morocco decoratively stamped in blind, lettered in gilt at spine, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt and gauffered (significant rubbing to edges, else a clean, solid copy).
THE FIRST BOOK ILLUSTRATED WITH A PHOTOGRAPHIC FRONTISPIECE PORTRAIT (according to Masterpieces of Victorian Photography [Arts Council], 1951, cat. no. 426).
First edition, and one of only very few copies issued with the photographic portrait of the author taken by J. G. Tunny. Most copies have the portrait in a wood-engraving.
Gernsheim’s Incunabula of British Photographic Literature does not list anything earlier with a portrait taken from life so the Arts Council statement is probably correct. What is certainly undeniable: this issue with the photograph is a rare book. Yanul. Photographically Illustrated books before 1860 p. 10 (“Most copies are without the photograph.”); Masterpieces of Victorian Photography (Arts Council), 1951, No. 426; Gernsheim, Incunabula of British Photographic Literature, 67.
- Binding Condition: Very Good
- Overall Condition: Very Good
- Size: 5 1/8 x 7 5/8 in tall
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