De Amicis Complete Travel Library 8 Volumes 1894-1897, Investment Grade

A ONCE-IN-A-DECADE OPPORTUNITY: THE COMPLETE DE AMICIS TRAVEL LIBRARY IN ESSENTIALLY "AS ISSUED" CONDITION, 1894-1897 You will not see this again. Edmondo De Amicis. The Complete Henry T. Coates Travel Library in Eight Volumes. Philadelphia: Henry T. Coates & Co., 1894-1897. A matched set of Victorian travel literature in such pristine condition that it defies the 130-year gap between publication and the present moment. THE COLLECTION: • Holland (2 volumes, 1894) Canals, windmills, and Dutch domesticity • Spain and the Spaniards (2 volumes, 1895) From Andalusia to Catalonia • Constantinople (2 volumes, 1896) The Ottoman capital at the zenith of its Orientalist allure • Morocco: Its People and Places (2 volumes, 1897) The Moorish empire before European domination THE CONDITION, INVESTMENT GRADE: These volumes present essentially as they did when Florence Becker (one signature on the Holland volumes otherwise entire set is unmarked) unwrapped them in 1899. The publisher's red cloth bindings show virtually no shelfwear. The elaborate gilt decoration, Moorish geometric arabesques on Morocco and Constantinople, European floral motifs on Holland and Spain remain bright and unworn, with no fading or rubbing to the gilt spine lettering but for a few small touches at spine of Morocco I. See pics - very minimal. The text blocks are SO TIGHT that the volumes resist opening fully. The signatures remain crisp and unbroken, the paper white and unfoxed. There is no mustiness, no mildew, no evidence of damp storage. The books smell of 1890s bookbinder's glue and fresh paper, not of attic or basement. In Holland I and Spain I there is the slightest separation over the paper at the board/page joint at book front but no loss of spine integrity. And other than these two cosmetic defects are all structurally excellent volumes. ALL MAPS PRESENT — including the large folding map of the Netherlands in Holland Volume II, the map of the Iberian Peninsula in Spain, the Bosphorus chart in Constantinople. See pictures. All tissue-guarded photographic plates present and pristine. The only concession to age: the silk ribbon bookmarks have frayed at the ends after 130 years, an authenticating detail that proves these are not reproductions. PROVENANCE: Volume I and II of Holland bears the contemporary inscription "Florence Becker, 1899" suggesting these were acquired as a Christmas or birthday gift and subsequently preserved rather than read. Perhaps this was the famous Chicago sculptor? The volumes were acquired from an estate liquidation in the Illinois area. THE MARKET REALITY: Individual titles in this series trade regularly at $75-100 per volume in "good" condition with wear, foxing, and shaken bindings. Complete matched sets in any condition are scarce. A uniform eight-volume set in essentially "as issued" condition with all maps and plates. This is the set that appears once a decade at auction. THE AESTHETIC: Sixteen inches of late-Victorian bookmaking at its most elaborate, a shelf presence that transforms a library from "collection" to "installation." The red cloth and gold decoration create a chromatic block of bibliographic art suitable for the finest private library, the curated interior, or the serious collection of travel literature. This is not a reading copy. This is a preservation copy, a time capsule from 1897 that happens to contain some of the finest travel writing of the 19th century. Curated by Blackwood Foundlings. Inspection invited for serious collectors. Questions welcome.…