£250
EXTRA-LARGE PAPER COPY, 2 vols., large 4to, pp. [ii], cxxvii, [i], 92; [ii], 93-209, [3], cii, [13] + 2 engraved title-pages and 93 plates containing 95 images. Contemporary red quarter calf, purple pebbled cloth boards, spines lettered direct in gilt, edges red. Some spotting and foxing, some offsetting from plates. Rubbed and worn, uneven fading and dampstaining to boards.
The 'Border Antiquities' was published in parts and then the plates reused for several decades afterward, leading to a bibliographic tangle. This copy is a variant not identified by Todd & Bowden, who describe three sizes of paper used for the first issue but no variant sizes of the later issues. It seems, however, to be related to an example they reference from a description in a Maggs catalogue: 'A variant issue [of the second printing] watermarked 1815 and with the plates on India paper' (T&B), described by Maggs as 'the special royal 4to issue'. The copy here is even larger, being on super royal paper (the largest of the three sizes of the first issue recorded by T&B), and has the plates on India paper and mounted; the paper stock is wove and apparently entirely unwatermarked. As with all the later printings both volumes are dated 1814 on the letterpress title-pages.
