The COMIC OFFERING; or LADIES' MELANGE or LITERARY MIRTH, for MDCCCXXXIV. by Edited by Louisa Henrietta Sheridan - 1834

Cornhill, London, England.: Smith, Elder and Co., 1834. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Fine/No Jacket (As Published). 4" to 5" by 6" to 7" tall. A Brief description of the books configuration and condition. A hardcover edition with full moroccan covered boards, both boards have deeply embossed decorations and are coloured dark burgundy. A rounded spine with gilt titling and deep embossed decorations of a matching colour to the boards. Stitched bindings with twine and linen. All three edges of the block are gilt finished. There is no loose jacket and for obvious reasons it is assumed this edition was produced with no jacket. This is the Forth volume, and its assumed its a first edition and printing of that volume. Internally, inner front cover has written in pencil "Embossed binding, De La Rue & Co" obviously written in a very old hand and style. When published and printed the reverse side of pages containing illustrations has been left blank. Printed by; Stewart and Co, Old Bailey. The description of the books condition is graded commensurate with its age. CONDITION of Boards and Bindings; The boards are complete and attached to the book block.The binding, that of the block, and the block to boards is extremely tight and sound, and it could be said are as good as the day the book left the publishers. Both front and rear boards are complete and show minimal wear. The wear being light rubbing to the boards head, tail, outer edges and corners. The spine has similar rubbing to its head and tail edges. On the spines head edge, the rubbing has resulted in a very small missing piece that is square shaped approximately 3 x 4mm. The spines/bindings head bands are complete and undamaged. The gilt block edges show minimal thumbing, they are bright, clean and undamaged, other than normal usage of handling marks. INTERNALLY; End, title and text pages are complete and intact. They are clean, and no hand written markings have been found. There is very mild 'yellowing' towards the outer edges of some pages, far less than could be expected. During manufacturing when the book went to be guillotined, the tail outer corner of page 139 was folded, resulting in it protruding approximately 1 mm if straightened out. A Summary of condition. A complete and intact book, that is still entirely composed in the finish and materials as when originally published. When taking into account its age, being 180 years old, this book is in a remarkably good condition. With the hand written reference to De La Rue Binders it is possible this book was originally purchase in 1834 as a block and then professionally bound. Therefore, there is the strong possibility that this book is unique. A historic book of collectable merit and historic interest in which its reading integrity is totally unimpaired. We describe any faults within our books most meticulously, this frequently results in our books being regarded by the vast majority as being in a much better condition to that as portrayed. A very rare and perhaps unique book. A combination of poetry, stories and sketches. Full of topical, fashionable and meaningful drawings of the Georgian period. Being such a significant book we welcome any requests for further information, with this is mind we have a number of addtional photographs available, please contact Orchard Lansdowne books if you require further assistance. This book will be posted via a recored delivery service.