Scenery of London, The by CARRINGTON, Robert, binder; MARSHALL, Herbert M.; MITTON, G.E

London: Adam & Charles Black, 1905. A Fine Example of an American Binding Specially Bound by Robert Carrington and Presented to Charles E. Lauriat on his 64th Birthday CARRINGTON, Robert, binder. MARSHALL, Herbert M. The Scenery of London. Painted by Herbert M. Marshall R.W.S. Described by G.E. Mitton. London: Adam & Charles Black, 1905. Bound in 1905 by Robert Carrington. Octavo (8 1/2 x 6 inches; 215 x 152 mm.). xiii, [1, blank], 222, [1], [1, blank] pp. Seventy-five colored plates with descriptive tissue-guards. Specially bound in 1905/1906 by Robert Carrington in full black hard-grain morocco over beveled boards. Covers elaborately decorated with a geometric and floral design, spine with five raised bands, decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments, decorative gilt board-edges and wide turn-ins. Red watered silk liners and end-leaves, gold marbled end-papers, all edges gilt. Very slight crack to upper joint - but still quite sound, otherwise near fine. On the front marbled end-paper is a rectangular blue morocco label, decoratively bordered and lettered in gilt "Presented/to/Charles E. Lauriat/on his 64th birthday, January 12, 1906/by/Robert Harrington/(Born Oct. 31, 1841)/as a specimen of his binding/at the age of 64". Robert Carrington ( 1841- ). There is a record of a Robert Carrington, bookbinder in an 1892 publication Public Documents of Massachusetts: Annual Reports of various Public Officers and Institutions for the year 1891 (page 443). Charles E. Lauriat (1842-1920) was a leading bookseller and publisher in Boston. "For 58 years he carried on the culturing and illuminating business of finding and selling the best of the world's literature, and he knew every angle of the trade for which he stood as a mentor and guide. In 1872 Charles Lauriat formed a partnership with Dana Estes, and their establishment was located at 301 Washington Street (except for a short interruption at the time of the Boston fire) until 1906. In 1898 the firm of Estes & Lauriat, which had been pioneers in the field of subscription bookselling as well as general publishing, separated into two corporations. the Dana Estes Co., publishers, and Charles E. Lauriat Co., retailers. Many famous people were frequenters of the store, such as Oliver Wendell Holmes and Justice Holmes, James G. Blaine, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Phillips Brooks; and innumerable fine libraries in New England and throughout the country owe their beginnings and their development to that store. Very early in the business, the habit of yearly visits to London was started and for nearly fifty years these annual trips were an important phase of the business, and no American buyer was better known to the old book-men of England from whose stocks and auction sales hundreds of cases started for Boston each year. In the development of mail order bookselling, especially in the field of rare books and remainders, Mr. Lauriat was especially successful, and their mailing list of book buyers was one of the most valuable in the country., while hundreds of New England's summer visitors made regular yearly purchases." (The Publishers' Weekly. American Book-Trade Journal. Volume XCVII, January to June, 1920).