2 vols., 8vo., First Edition, with frontispieces (one in colour), 5 coloured plates, 93 plates in monochrome, and very numerous reproductions and facsimiles (many full-page) in the text; original printed boards, upper boards with triple gilt frame border, lower boards blocked in gilt, one small tear at tail of second backstrip else a near fine set. WITH THE PRINTED LISTS OF PURCHASERS AND PRICES REALISED LOOSELY INSERTED (first list present in photofacsimile). The set comprises: Part I: A-L (1979); Part II: M-Z (1980). This remarkable sale comprises 850 lots. 'The collection is primarily of English literature, with emphasis on the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. The few excursions outside that range are exceptional books and manuscripts. Almost all that Houghton acquired is of superlative quality and interest - frequently the kind of item that causes one to be astonished that it should even exist. For example, of just over seventy-five Short-title Catalogue books appearing in the first part of the sale, more than a dozen are either unique, or the only known perfect copy, or the only one yet remaining in private hands'. Foreword. Houghton's watchwords were association, condition and rarity. Among the manuscripts are long runs of letters from Elizabeth and Robert Browning, two letters from Evelyn to Pepys, and the earliest holograph draft of Locke's 'Essay', arguably the most important of all English philosophical manuscripts in private hands. The descriptions are appropriately detailed, with full collations and standard references for virtually every item, making the two volumes a valuable bibliographical resource. A BRIGHT SET OF AN IMPORTANT CATALOGUE.
