The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty Queen Anne Written by Himself by William Makepeace Thackeray, Austin Dobson (Introduction) - 1905

London and New York: Macmillan and Co. Limited , 1905 A good copy in the original decorative cloth binding with numerous full page and in text illustrations by Hugh Thomson. First edition in this form. All page edges gilt. The binding has an intricate gilt flower and leaf design with titles to the front board, and gilt titles with further flowers and leaves to the spine. The front board is very bright and clean; the spine is more dulled. There is pulling to the top and bottom of the spine, which is cocked. There is some wear (including cloth damage) and bumping to corners. The back board has some very light marking. Internally the original endpapers are present - there is a pencilled 6/- to the front pastedown and the front free endpaper is a little grubby and has a turned over corner tip. There is an ink inscription dated 1907 to the initial blank. Contents with half title, frontispiece with tissue guard, title page, introduction, author's preface and text in 3 parts with half titles. There is a catalogue at the rear - with slight damage to the last page where it was stuck to the rear free endpaper, which also has slight damage. Contents very clean.