John Cordy Jeaffreson

A Book About Lawyers [Two Volume Set]

London: Hurst and Blackett, 1867. Very Good. Item #49359

London: Hurst and Blackett, 1867. First Edition. Two octavo volumes (22cm); contemporary green roan over marbled paper-covered boards, gilt spines in six compartments, all edges marbled, marbled endpapers; vii,[1],384; vii,[1],431pp. Leather rather rubbed with exposure at corners, terminals quite foxed, 1960s address label and ballpoint ownership inscription to front flyleaves; About Very Good.

Part of the Victorian novelist's satirical "A Book about" series which included "A Book About Doctors" (1860); "A Book about the Clergy" (1870); and "A Book About the Table" (1874).

Provenance: Early 20th century ownership ex libris of Reginald L. Hine (1883-1949), the doomed English lawyer who threw himself in front of a train after the Law Society threatened to strike him off as a solicitor. The bookplate, illustrated with a medieval scholar hard at work in his study, is reminiscent of Hine's own flamboyant professional digs: "Those who availed themselves of Hine's professional skills were startled by the visual richness of his office, with its roaring fire in winter, illuminating the spines of his substantial book collection, and the Bukhara prayer mat which adorned the floor" (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).

Price: $250.00