Hannah Mary Rathbone] Lady Willoughby

SO MUCH OF THE DIARY OF LADY WILLOUGHBY AS RELATES TO HER DOMESTIC HISTORY, & TO THE EVENTFUL PERIOD OF THE REIGN OF CHARLES THE FIRST [and] SOME FURTHER PORTIONS OF THE DIARY... (2 Volumes, Complete; 1635-1648 and 1648-1663)

London: Printed by Charles Whittingham, at the Chiswick Press for Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans, 1844, 1848.

Octavo. Half Leather. First Edition. A lovely set, half bound in maroon morocco with corner and marbled paper over boards; all edges gilt; binding is stamp signed by Liverpool bookbinders, Webb & Hunt, on the verso of the front free endpaper; light abrasions to the marbled paper including a small abrasion with loss to the marbling on the front board of Volume II; a beautifully produced set in a 17th century style; each page with rule-borders, complete with shoulder-note dates and running headers. The DNB notes, “Thomas Longman took great pride in bringing out the ‘Diary’ as an exact reproduction of a book of the seventeenth century, in which it was supposed to be written. He had a new fount specially cast at the Chiswick Press.” This was a Caslon face and marks the first significant use in the 19th century. Updike suggests that "the chief typographic event of the mid-nineteenth century was this revival of the earliest Caslon types.” Typographically, Updike notes that this fresh use of a good type-face “came as a novelty and relief to printers who had long since abandoned good earlier type-faces…. This was the beginning of the popular revival of Caslon fonts” (II, 199). Rathbone’s fictitious “Diary” has been repeatedly reprinted into the 21st century. An enduring classic. (Updike II: 199).

Very Good+ binding
Item #252342