Books

Paragraph 1: First edition. Two quarto volumes (the bindings 11-5/8 x 9-1/2 x 2-1/2 in.; the pages 11-1/4 x 8-7/8 in.). Complete (except half-titles omitted) with the original 13 inserted engraved plates and two engraved text illustrations (the fore-piece and tail-piece of the Life); extra-illustrated with 151 additional inserted plates. Paragraph 2: Collates (vol. I) a2(?)-5(?), b1-5(?), c-e^4, B-3Z^4, 4A1-3: xlii, 498, [2], xlix, [1] pp., plus 8 inserted plates as listed and 84 additional inserted plates, and [2 ll. (binder's blanks)] front and rear; (vol. II), [A]2, B-2X^4, 2Y^2, 2Z^4, 4A-5Q^4: 1 l. (title recto), 348 pp., 1 l. (section title Correspondence recto, actually being pp. [1-2]), vii, [1], 3-311, [1] pp., plus 5 inserted plates as listed (one double-page) and 67 additional inserted plates, and [2 ll. (binder's blanks)] front and rear. Paragraph 3: Bound by Bayntun of Bath (its gilt stamp on lower front dentelles) in full red crushed levant morocco. Covers, cover edges and dentelles gilt-tooled in retrospective 17th-century panel style, spines gilt-tooled in six compartments with raised bands, red watered silk endpapers, all edges gilt, red silk marker ribbons (the ends frayed), maroon felt-lined chemises and full maroon morocco gilt-tooled slipcases. Paragraph 4: Extra-illustrated with the insertion of 151 additional plates of portraits, scenes, maps and other subjects, meticulously scaled by mounting, trimming or folding, and including preliminary, large-paper, before-letters and India proofs. The additional frontispiece portrait is, most unusually, a mounted original color photograph taken from the painting after which the engraved frontispiece portrait was designed. Paragraph 5: A full compilation of the inserted plates, executed in line and stipple engraving, etching and mezzotint, some in bistre and generally made within the span 1730-1830 (other than the additional photographic portrait frontispiece), is available on request. The condition is generally fine, the plates and their mounts bright and clean and with only scattered instances of faint foxing, the bindings exceptional, saving four particular condition exceptions: (i) shallow rectangular scratch and tiny terminal bump at the lower corner of the rear cover vol. I; (ii) almost imperceptible traces where the morocco bookplates now tipped in at the rear endleaves once adhered to the front silk pastedowns; (iii) unpredictable occurrences of offsetting from inserted plates or text blocks onto facing or trailing pages, generally none, sometimes faint or mild, sometimes moderate; (iv) the half-titles are omitted.

The Diary of Samuel Pepys is one of the most important primary sources of the English Restoration, recording personal experiences and views of significant events such as the Great Plague of London and the Great Fire of London.