Ballad Romances
London: Charles Ollier, 1846. First edition (but see below). Chapter IV of John Carter’s Binding Variants in English Publishing 1820-1900 (London: Constable & Co Ltd, 1932) revolves around binding variants of this book. Carter notes several different binding variants and calls it “the prize exhibit in my collection of [binding variant] puzzles.” Id. at 62. However, the copy here appears to be anomalous – it has both the 1846 Ollier title page and the 1846 Ollier advertisements – but the binding is not any of Carter’s four variants. Rather it appears to be the Hex5 “pansy” cloth introduced in the mid-1860s. Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823-50, The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, Vol. 100, No. 1 (March 2006), pg. 59. Like Carter suggests, the binding variants of this volume may be a “much ado about nothing,” but it’s still a fun puzzle – perhaps even more variants abound.
6 7/8” x 4 1/2”. [8], 2-248pp., [3, ads]. NCBEL III 524; Shumaker pg. 4. Very good in green cloth binding, with some bumping to corners and heavier at the spine, university bookplate and a few remnants of card pocket. Still very presentable and quite uncommon in commerce. Item #3
Price: $100.00