The Life and Times of Sir Robert Peel [Vol. I, II, III & IV]

London: Peter Jackson, Late Fisher, Son, & Co., 1851. Hardcover. Good. Four volumes complete. Ex-library (non-lending). Half brown calfskin with morocco-grain cloth sides. Spine with five raised bands, gilt tooled compartments, brown and green morocco labels in the second and third compartments. No call number on spine. Sicker ghosts on top boards. Plain endpapers. Library plates on front pastedowns. Pinhole library stamps on the title page and one additional page in each volume. No pockets. Some minor pencil marginalia. Volume I has an engraved title page & frontispiece; Vol. II-IV have tissue-guarded frontispieces. 85 engraved plates in all. 4to. pp. 524, 452, 531, 656. Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet (1788-1850) was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834-1835 & 1841-1846) and one of the founders of the modern Conservative Party. He also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer (1834-1835) and twice as Home Secretary (1822-1827 & 1828-1830). The first three volumes were authored by the Irish journalist and historian William Cooke Taylor (1800-1849) and the account was completed with a fourth volume by Charles Mackay (1814-1889), who is primarily remembered for his Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds. This set is from the collection of John Wilson (c. 1826-1900), an Irish-born pioneer merchant and book collector of Portland, Oregon. His collection was considered to be one of the finest on the west coast and was bequeathed to the Portland public library in 1900.