TILT, Charles (Publisher).

My Own Library. CHILD, Isabella. The Little Picture Bible. The Little Picture Testament. MAY, W. The Little Book of British Quadrupeds. The Little Book of British Birds. WILLIAMS, C. The Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park. The Surrey Zoological Gardens. [with] The Little History of England. Famous Men of Britain. London Sights for Little Folks. Country Walks for Little Folks. The Little Robinson Crusoe. The Little Esop.

London: Charles Tilt; [Tilt & Bogue], [c.1840]. Twelve volumes bound in six, 16mo. Each volume with a hand coloured second title plus numerous black and white engravings, bookseller's small label ("Grant & Griffith, successors to John Harris") to the paste down in four of the volumes. Original gilt titled publisher's cloth, rebacked retaining all or most of the original backstrips in all but one case, the final volume containing Robinson Crusoe and Aesop having a plain spine. The set still held in its original morocco covered bookshelf, titled "My Own Library" in gilt above the books, the leather originally maroon but faded to green everywhere except for underneath, gilt decorated maroon label above the books also holding its colour. Some general rubbing and wear to extremities, the top with slight loss to one side and cracked all the way around but still held on soundly. A set of charming miniature children's books. Originally mostly published individually in the 1830s, these issues containing two works to a volume seem to have been bound up with hand coloured titles once Tilt joined forces with David Bogue in 1840; their joint imprint appearing in the final four works in the present set. Welsh 944, 4890, 4889, 7173, 7172, 4453, 2772, 4699, 2053, 2215 & 62, the first work ("Little Picture Bible") not noted. Not uncommon individually, sets such as these would have presumably been supplied to order and are very scarce, two others being located in commerce (of seven and twelve volumes respectively), while OCLC notes a set of five works in Toronto Public Library, presumably the five works listed separately in Osborne's bibliography. Item #33250

Price: £600.00