[FINE BINDINGS. France, 18th-Century]. Quinti Horatii Flacci Opera

London: Gul. Sandby, 1749. 2 vols., 8vo. Title-pages in red and black (both with large engraved portrait of the Horace), [x], 166; [2], 167-353 pp. With engraved dedication to George, Prince of Wales (later George III), and 35 full-page engraved plates (including frontispiece). Contemporary French red morocco, triple gilt rule around sides, small flower ornament at the corners, smooth spine gilt with seven compartments, olive morocco lettering pieces, comb-marbled endpapers, all edges gilt (corners a bit bumped and with some wear; small circular booklabel removed from front pastedown of both volumes; text at front and back a little browned). Overall in very good condition. Sandby's very handsome edition of Horace, illustrated with 35 engraved plates. Uncommon in contemporary French red morocco, as here. Our copy appears to have been printed on thick paper.

The bindings are indeed French: the watermark on the final blank of vol. 2 is "raisin" dated "17[?]" type of Gaudriault 956. That Sandby's Horace was favored by French bibliophiles is attested by the copy bound in green morocco aux armes for Madame Marquise de La Live d'Epinay (Hans Furstenburg --> Otto Schafer --> Sotheby's London 12/7/1995, lot 301).
 
According to Rev. Dibdin: "I have always considered this work as a very pleasing and respectable production, and in point of accuracy preferable to its rival, the edition of Pine. The plates are numerous, and many of them conceived and executed with great taste" (Introduction to the Knowledge of Rare and Valuable Editions of the Greek and Latin Classics, vol. II, p.109).

Provenance: W[illiam] W[alker] Scranton (1844-1916), the great American industrialist who was president of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company (the second largest of its kind in the U.S.), with his inscriptions in both volumes dated 1904.
 
ESTC T46228.