AMELIA. 3 VOLUME SET. by Fielding, Henry

London: C. Cooke 208 pp, 200 pp, 216 pp - 16 mo (6 1/8" H). No date - c1800. Leather spines with five raised bands with gilt banding, red leather title label with gilt lettering. Leather corners, brown paper-covered boards. Edges of text block untrimmed. Six b&w plates in total, all noted as printed for C. Cooke, 1793 - three in V.1 (two by J. De Wild, one by R. Corbould), one in V.2 (R. Corbold) and two in V.3 (R. Corbould). Small b&w decoration on each title page and small b&w decorative tailpiece at the end of V.2 & V.3. Charles Cooke was located at 17 Paternoster Row from 1789-1817, and began publishing a series of small format classics "embellished with engravings c1793." "Amelia" is a tale that begins with the marriage of Amelia Harris, the daughter of a wealthy widow, to Captain William Booth. They elope, as Mrs. Harris disapproves of the match - seemingly with cause - and we follow the virtuous wife and the unreliable husband through gambling, debt, imprisonment, infidelity and all the 'delights' of 18th century London. All volumes have heavy browning at corners of endpapers caused by leather, browning migrates slightly into some parts of the adjacent pages - also there are scattered foxing marks. Pages opposite illustration pages show light browning due to offset from illustration. Volume 1 has a corner piece missing from the title page; a small hole in two lines of text of page leaf 171/172 and a small chip in the the top margin; a few dark foxing marks on pages 202 and 203 which migrate lightly into adjacent pages; a few pages with foxing marks towards front of book; three puncture marks in the left margin of one plate (not affecting the illustration). Volume 2 has two page leaves with a piece missing from the fore-edge margin only - caused by opening of pages; three puncture marks in the left margin of plate (not affecting the illustration). Volume 3 has a small piece missing from the bottom corner of page leaf 163/164; three puncture marks in the left margin of both plate (not affecting the illustration). All volumes have tiny scuff marks and a few small stains on boards, darkenied edges to text blocks and scattered foxing marks, light to moderate edge wear, a few tiny scuffs to leather on spine.. Half-Leather. Good. Illus. by J. De Wilde, R. Corbould. .