Bishop Burnet's History Of His Own Time, 2 Volumes

London: Thomas ward/Joseph downing/Henry Woodfall, 1724. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Very Good-/Near Fine. Folio - over 12" - 15" tall. The restoration looks superb to my untutored eye. The books measure 14" x 9", collation is folio. The previous owners notes read , "1/2 morocco." The style is spine and tips(diagonally) done in leather, balance in marbled green/tan paper, pastedowns and endsheets are heavy cream tone stock. Printing data on volume 1 "Printed for Thomas Ward in the Inner-Temple lane-1724." the collector has penciled, on the first pastedown, "2 vols, first edition, RCTY" (sic). Book commences with title page, verso blank, 1 page advertisement to reader, verso blank, 5 leaves(10pages) of subscriber names, followed by a TOC numbered from 827 to 836. Following this the actual text begins at page 1 with a 4 page preface followed by text numbered to 826. After this 10 leaves(20 pages) of index, last of which is a "Proposal" advertisement. Reviewing the text for flaws beyond the customary waviness and age darkening, some light staining of text upper areas is noted at 1st page of TOC, some smudge elsewhere noted, no noting in text seen (excepting old owner name under title title page) wonderfully legible, no dog ear seen. Volume 2 printing data, "Printed for the editor by Joseph Downing in Bartholomew-Close and Henry Woodfall in the Strand-1734." After replaced endsheets, title page, Verso has penned note "The original manuscript of both volumes of this history will be deposited in the Cotton library by T. Burnet" boxed in double red lines. After this come a 10 leaf(20 page) subscriber list. Following comes TOC of the 2nd volume numbered 729 to 740. Actual text commences running page 1 (no number) thru 764 pages including a long index. Reviewing the text, the first 40 pages or so have large but mild ancient stain at upper area. The entirity of the upper text is also affected, same, but more mildly so. This darkens again at the end of the work. A similar stain affects the lower back pages. Also the piece has more fleck, smudge and corrected dog era than its brother, yet, spendid in its considerable age. Both items text edges have much edge darkening but a clean, unsmudged appearance. Looking at the exteriors they seem fine, excepting volume one which has 2 tiny imperfections where the paper meets the spine leather. one is a tiny chip out, pencil eraser size, and a tiny upper area ripple. Volume II has variegation of leather color on spine, suspect this is as the leather/cow was made. Books will weigh around 18 lbs for shipping, we will pay 1/2 of domestic media mail shipping and provide insurance and delivery confirmation at our expense, as we do with all expensive items. Overseas shipping by arrangement.