Carving Handbook.       - A rare miniature.
The Handbook of Carving
WITH Hints for the Dinner-Table. WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIVE FIGURES. London: GEORGE ROUTELEDGE AND SONS, The Broadway, Ludgate. New York: 416 Broome Street.
95x68mm (3-3/4" x 2-1/2") 1fep. Half-Title. [1] (1) Coloured Frontispiece. Coloured extra Title page. [1] Title Page. [1] 1p Reface. [1] (1)p8 Contents. (1)10-82. [2] 12p Advertisements of Routeledge books (including one page advertising Soyer's "Cookery for the People" and Francatelli's "A Plain Cookery for the Working Classes"). 1fep. Has numerous engraved drawings in the text. With the original crimson cloth binding and a blind tooled line around the edges of boards, and a fresh gilt illustration on the front cover. All edges in gold. Housed in a handsome clamshell box in dark brown half calf and brown cloth boards, lined with felt cloth. With raised bands, gilt lines and a bottle green morocco label with gilt writing.
- The frontis and extra title page are very bright and colourful, The overall condition of this lovely little book is excellent, thus the reason for the clam-shell box. The BL holds one copy and dates it circa 1866. Perhaps due in part to the smallness and relative delicacy of this little tome they are very rare. They would not have been securely housed on a book-shelf with other books but rather odd places like drawers or forgotten paper piles to be discarded unintentionally, or treated more roughly than a larger book. Where ever this copy has been it was not used nor disturbed very much. A little gem.

click on image to enlarge
Information

Antiquarian category
ref number: 11061