The Works of William Congreve in Three Volumes. Consisting of his Plays and Poems. Birmingham. Printed by John Baskerville; For J. and R. Tonson in London, 1761.
"the Baskerville Congreve... I couldn't read him in a cheap edition!" - Night and Day by Virginia Woolf (1919)
-------------------
The collected works of William Congreve, notably printed by John Baskerville, one of the most famous English printers, mainly known for his edition of the Bible and his designed type which remains in popular use to this day and is generally referred to as 'Baskerville font' in modern nomenclature.
We won't argue with William Rodney in Virginia Woolf's novel in saying that this is certainly a well executed and 'expensive' edition of Congreve's works. It features a lovely engraved portrait frontispiece after the very famous portrait artist Godfrey Kneller, and a further five plates preceding some of the respective works through the set.
Size: 150 x 234 mm (approx., each)
Condition:
Spines a little rubbed but remain attractive. Author tooled labels replaced but show well. Some shelf & edge wear with corresponding wear to extremities. Top page edges dulled as typical with others very good. Boards all very good, all securely attached with just minor rubbing to joints. No attached bookplates or ownership inscriptions are present. Internally mildly toned as typical but generally internally excellent. Collated as complete.
