Plain Ringlets Vols by Surtees Robert Smith (6 results)

Hardcover. Condition: vg to vg-. Later printing. These 6 volumes are part of a limited edition but the limitation not stated. Each volume with an added engraved woodcut title. Illustrated with a total of 48 (of 72 in the complete set) hand-colored, steel engraved plates (suitable for framing), each with a tissue guard. 40 are by John Leech and 8 by Harlot K. Browne. All the hand-colored plates are bright and clean. Plus there are approximately 240 text woodcuts by Leech, Browne and W. T. Maud. Plus approximately 120 illustrated ads bound in at rear of 5 of the 6 volumes The six volumes, printed at the Whitefriars Press, are uniformly bound in red cloth with elaborately gilt decorated spines. T.e.g. Spines are somewhat darkened and with very minor fraying at extremities.

Third Edition. Fine copy in the original gilt-blocked cloth and top gilt edging. Spine bands slightly rubbed and sun-toned as with age. Remains particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered. Provenance; from the library of J.E. Wightman with his bookplate. Series; Handley Cross series. Physical description; 2 v. Notes; Attributed to Robert Smith Surtees. Subjects; English literature - Fiction - Miscellaneous. Genres; text. illustrated. 2 Kg.

Third Edition. Fine copy in the original gilt-blocked cloth and top gilt edging. Spine bands slightly rubbed and sun-toned as with age. Remains particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered. Provenance; from the library of J.E. Wightman with his bookplate. Series; Handley Cross series. Physical description; 2 v. Notes; Attributed to Robert Smith Surtees. Subjects; English literature - Fiction - Miscellaneous. Genres; text. illustrated. 2 Kg.

Condition: Very Good. Limited . Complete 11 volume matching set of decorative, limited 3/4 leather Surtees volumes in good condition all possessing the personal armorial bookplate of famed Foxhunter, sporting author of 7 books and horse show judge: J. Stanley Reeve. Includes: Handley Cross (2 vols), illustrated by Leech has 550pp and 17 hand-colored full-page steel engravings; Hawbuck Grange (1 vol), illustrated by Phiz has 330pp and 8 hand-colored full-page steel engravings; Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour (2 vols), illustrated by Leech has 408pp and 13 hand-colored full-page steel engravings; Ask Mamma (2 vols), illustrated by Leech has 412pp and 13 hand-colored full-page steel engravings; Plain or Ringlets (2 vols), illustrated by Leech has 406pp and 12 hand-colored full-page steel engravings and hand-colored title page; and Mr Romford's Hounds (2 vols), illustrated by Leech and Phiz has 392pp and 24 hand-colored full-page steel engravings. These six stories are uniformly bound by Dickers & Son, Leicester Square London in 11 volumes of three quarter crimson morocco leather over red cloth boards. Internally they are near fine with red and gold marbled endpapers, untrimmed fore edges and bright gilt head of page block. I saw an occasional light fingerprint in the margins, text is tight and bright, all plates have their tissue guards but the bound-in red ribbon markers are very worn, separated or missing. The dry spine ends are in varying states of distress being chipped & ragged, and one with a finger pull at head. They would benefit from restoration for esthetics but the books remain readable as is. These are antique originals that are still handsome on the shelf. Each leather spine has five raised bands with alternating gilt images of horseshoes and full cheek snaffle bits, with tooled edge at top & bottom of spine. Gilt spine titles are bright. Uncommon set made even more so due to their provenance with J. Stanley Reeve. Jorrocks, the sporting cockney grocer, with his vulgarity and good-natured artfulness, was a great success with the public, and Surtees produced more Jorrocks novels in the same vein, notably Handley Cross, where the description of the house is very reminiscent of Hamsterley. Another hero, Soapey Sponge, appears in Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour, possibly Surtees best work. All Surtees' novels were composed at Hamsterley Hall, where he wrote standing up at a desk, like Victor Hugo. Surtees studied Law and in 1835, Surtees abandoned his legal practice and after inheriting Hamsterley Hall in 1838, devoted himself to hunting and shooting. Shipping at cost, please phone or email your location before ordering.

Mixed Edition. Together six octavo volumes (8 5/8 x 5 7/16 inches; 219 x 137 mm.). All first editions in book form except for Handley Cross and Hillingdon Hall, which are the first illustrated editions (first published in three volumes, without illustrations, in 1843 & 1845). Uniformly bound ca. 1920 in full red crushed levant morocco by Riviere & Son (stamp-signed on front turn-ins). Covers triple-ruled in gilt, spines with five raised bands, decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments, gilt-ruled board edges, decorative gilt turn-ins, top edge gilt, others uncut, dark blue coated endpapers. All with the original gilt decorated cloth covers bound in at end. Each volume with the armorial bookplate of Herman Frasch Whiton and his ink signature on a front blank. Several joints show varying degrees of cracking - still a very handsome set. The first five titles originally published in parts. Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour with thirteen hand-colored engraved plates and eighty-four wood engravings; Handley Cross with seventeen hand-colored engraved plates and eighty-four wood engravings; Ask Mamma with thirteen hand-colored engraved plates and sixty-nine wood engravings; Plain or Ringlets? with thirteen hand-colored engraved plates and forty-four wood engravings; Mr. Facey Romford's Hounds with twenty-four hand-colored engraved plates and wood-engraved title vignette; [and] Hillingdon Hall or, The Cockney Squire with twelve hand-colored engraved plates and wood-engraved title vignette. Robert Smith Surtees (1805-1864) "founded, with R. Ackermann the younger, the New Sporting Magazine in 1831, to which he contributed his comic sketches of Mr Jorrocks, the sporting Cockney grocer, later collected as Jorrocks's Jaunts and Jollities (1838). Jorrocks, whose adventures to some extent suggested the original idea of Pickwick Papers, reappears in Handley Cross (1843; expanded and illustrated by Leech, 1854). His second great character, Mr Soapey Sponge, appears in Mr Sponge's Sporting Tour (1853); another celebrated character was Mr Facey Romford, who appears in his last novel, Mr Facey Romford's Hounds (1865). His eight long novels deal mainly with the characteristic aspects of English fox-hunting society, but his vivid caricatures, the absurd scenes he describes, the convincing dialect and often repeated catch-phrases, distinguish him from other writers of this genre. The illustration of his novels by Leech, Alken, and â Phiz' (H.K. Browne) also contributed to their success" (The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature). Hardie211-213. Schwerdt II, 233-238. Tooley 476, 473, 472, 477, 475, & 474.

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Limited Edition. 11 volumes (complete), Royal octavo, Handley Cross, 2 vols., xvi, 430pp. + xii, 427pp., illustrated with 17 hand-coloured steel engraved plates and many woodcuts by John Leech; Ask Mamma, 2 vols., xvi, 300pp. + xii, 300pp., illustrated with 13 hand-coloured steel engraved plates and many woodcuts by John Leech; Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour, 2 vols., xvi, 323pp. + xii, 328pp., illustrated with 13 hand-coloured steel engraved plates and many woodcuts by John Leech; Mr. Facey Romford's Hounds, 2 vols., xii, 275pp. + xii, 273pp., illustrated with 24 hand-coloured steel engraved plates by Leech and Hablot K. Browne, with text illustrations by W.T. Maud; Plain or Ringlets, 2 vols., xiv, 298pp. + xii, 286pp., illustrated with 12 hand-coloured steel engraved plates and many woodcuts by John Leech; Hawbuck Grange Or the Sporting Adventures of Thomas Scott, Esquire, xii, 293pp., illustrated 8 hand-coloured steel engraved plates by Hablot K. Browne with text illustrations by W.T. Maud. With half-titles and additional wood-engraved titles to each volume, title pages printed in red and black, some occasional slight scattered spotting mainly affecting blank endpapers, each volume with matching marbled endpapers and top edges gilt, all uniformly bound in very good quality half red morocco, spines neatly titled in gilt and beautifully gilt decorated in six compartments with hunting scenes and symbols including the fox, foxhounds, huntsmen on horseback, horseshoes, riding hat and crop. A lovely bright LIMITED EDITION SET in a most handsome and desirable binding with only some minor wear to extremities. (Images available on request). Robert Smith Surtees (17 May 1805 16 March 1864) was an English editor, novelist and sporting writer. He was the second son of Anthony Surtees of Hamsterley Hall, a member of an old County Durham family. He left for London in 1825, intending to practise law in the capital, but had difficulty making his way and began contributing to the Sporting Magazine. He launched out on his own with the New Sporting Magazine in 1831, contributing the comic papers which appeared as Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities in 1838. Jorrocks, the sporting cockney grocer, with his vulgarity and good-natured artfulness, was a great success with the public, and Surtees produced more Jorrocks novels in the same vein, notably Handley Cross, where the description of the house is very reminiscent of Hamsterley. Another hero, Soapey Sponge, appears in Mr Sponge's Sporting Tour, possibly Surtees best work. All Surtees' novels were composed at Hamsterley Hall, where he wrote standing up at a desk, like Victor Hugo. In 1835, Surtees abandoned his legal practice and after inheriting Hamsterley Hall in 1838, devoted himself to hunting and shooting, meanwhile writing anonymously for his own pleasure. He was a friend and admirer of the great hunting man Ralph Lambton, who had his headquarters at Sedgefield County Durham, the 'Melton of the North'. Surtees became Lord High Sheriff of Durham in 1856. He died in Brighton in 1864 and was buried in Ebchester church. Though Surtees did not set his novels in any readily identifiable locality, he uses North East place-names like Sheepwash, Howell (How) Burn, and Winford Rig. His memorable Geordie, James Pigg in Handley Cross is based on Joe Kirk, a Slaley huntsman. The famous incident, illustrated by Leech, when Pigg jumps into the melon frame was inspired by a similar episode involving Joe Kirk in Corbridge. As a creator of comic personalities, Surtees is still very readable today. Thackeray envied him his powers of observation, while William Morris considered him 'a master of life' and ranked him with Dickens. The novels are engaging and vigorous, and abound with sharp social observation, with a keener eye than Dickens for the natural world. Perhaps Surtees most resembles Dickens of Pickwick Papers, which was originally intended as mere supporting matter for a series of sporting illustrations to rival Jorrocks.