The Book of Wit
Westminster: The Roxburghe Press, N.D.
Hardcover. 7 7/8" X 5 3/8". 138pp, plus 1pp ads. No date, circa 1890s. Red cloth over boards, with cover and spine stamped in gilt. Stain to spine, front board edge of spine, and top edge of front board. Spine darkened, gilt to spine dimmed. Bookseller notations pencilled to verso of front free endpaper. Tissue guarded frontispiece of Samuel Johnson with six plate portraits throughout: Theodore Hook, Sydney Smith, Talleyrand, Douglas Jerrold, Dumas, and Charles Lamb. Text block starting to separate at page 36. Binding remains sound. Pages are clean and unmarked. Chapters include: Present Low Standard of Wit; Definitions of Wit; Judge Maule and the Late Master of Trinity; French Wits and Dr. Johnson; Lord Chesterfield, Lord Westbury, and Others; Talleyrand, Montrond, Dumas, and Other French Wits; Douglas Jerrold, Lord Bowen, and Others; Scotch Wit. Good. Item #1904
Price: $35.00