The Antiquities of England and Wales (Volumes I, II, III and IV)

Complete in four volumes.  1773-1776.  All four volumes uniformly bound.  Fully bound in brown calf’s leather with gilt filigree decorations on front and rear panels.  Gilt lettering on six-panelled spines. Marble endpapers.  The covers of all four volumes are worn and scuffed, heavily rubbed and rounded at corners and spine ends, cracking around spines.  Spine leather cracking – volume three has a short white strip on the lower portion. Upper panels of volumes two three and four are  loosening, that of volume one is detached. Text block edges are a little toned and dust darkened. Internally there is a little page ageing and faint and occasional foxing, with the odd small mark, flaw or annotation but generally clean, neat and text blocks tight.    Volume one has an armorial bookplate on the front paste down, being the bookplate of Francis Henry Wilkinson and bearing the Wilkinson family crest (a dog bearing a rose in its mouth), with the motto instans ac constans (urgent and constant).

Volume I (1773) – engraved frontispiece, title page with engraved vignette, circa 150 half page engravings with associated commentary; Volume II (1774) – engraved frontispiece, title page with engraved vignette, engraved plan, circa 160 half page engraving with associated commentary; Volume III (1775) – engraved frontispiece, title page with engraved vignette, numerous half page engravings with commentary.  Volume IV (1776) – engraved frontispiece, title page with engraved vignette, engraved plan, many half page engravings with associated commentary, further engraved plans.