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In Two Volumes. First Editions (NAP). The Jerningham Letters Being Excerpts From The Correspondence And Diaries Of The Honourable Lady Jerningham And Of Her Daughter Lady Bedingfeld. This should prove a very appealing option. I've looked at the other sets offered for sale. Most are ex-library and/or burdened with excessive attachments. My volumes are NOT ex-library and there is only one small attachment, a thin and mostly loose clipping from a 1931 bookseller offering of this book on the blank first front end paper. I'm going to quote from it: 'with portraits, illustrations, photogravure, and folding pedigree, Original blue gilt cloth extra, uncut, very fine, 25/-. Bentley, 1896'. I wouldn't dare to describe the books today as 'very fine', but I haven't hesitated to grade them Very Good Minus, taking into account their age. You can see the covers of the volumes in the photographs provided. They've held up quite well. There is a bit of rippling on the rear cover of Volume I, but not much else to call out. There is very little soiling, if any. The gilt lettering and designs are quite bright. There are some small tears at the spine ends. The eight corners have some rubbing but only one has a speck-sized bit of rub-through. There's a tiny penned last name on the front inside covers of both volumes, but in scrolling through I didn't see any other writing, no underwriting, no notes, nothing. I did see a lot of very clean pages in very nice condition. And I took the time to check against the Portraits And Illustrations pages in each Volume to make sure that all were present. They are. And, they are in excellent condition. No foxing, no spotting. Simply put, they look terrific. And the ' folding pedigree' the bookseller referenced is present (two attached fold-outs actually) before the Introduction page in Volume I. The first has two small tears, the second one small tear. None touch the print. Overall, they are in excellent condition. Focusing now on the imperfections inside the book: Beginning with Volume I the frontispiece is present but detached. It's in very decent shape. There's light foxing on the margins of the half-title page, on its blank verso, on the blank verso of the frontispiece, a couple of spots of foxing at the top edge of the frontispiece, foxing on the margins of the title page, and then it's gone, totally gone, and doesn't return at all. Again, the pages are exceptionally clean. I did see a very small brown spot in the same place on the top white margin of six consecutive pages. I didn't see any creasing. No tears. One bottom corner is too long and is folded back onto the page. As for binding, there is a slight crack over the bottom inch or so between the both the front and rear inside covers and their end papers, but the covers are very securely bound. There also several instances of a very thin space between pages, but no page in the book (excepting the frontispiece) is loose. Volume II has a tiny bit of paper lifting up between the inside covers and end papers, the rear gutter has very thin space over the bottom inch or so. So, as with the first volume, both covers are very securely bound. There are no repairs to be found in either volume. The minor foxing described in Volume I over the first few pages is exactly the same here, and again totally disappears after the title page and never recurs. The pages are again exceptionally clean and have only a few corner creases. The frontispiece is not detached and has its tissue guard. The binding similar to Volume I, has a few instances of thin spaces, but is overall very tightly bound. One page, the first page of the first chapter, has a few tears along its gutter but is still securely bound. Don't freak out when you see that page '1' says '25'. I downloaded an archived PDF and was relieved to see that was how it was published. Presumably a first edition error. Seller Inventory # 001810
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