Books

engr f/ps, with tissue guards, in v I & II, engr arms on titles, without half-title to v V, 2 pp adverts tipped in to v I. Foxing to f/ps & guards, little spotting elsewhere; uncut in original (?) cloth-backed red paper-covered boards, paper spine labels (chipped), worn and scuffed, spines faded and frayed, v II sp missing, v V defective & repaired; large armorial bookpls of {Sir] Leonard Twiston Davies (1894-1953, Mommouthshire landowner & patron of the National Library and National Museum of Wales). First Pickering printing, reprinting Tyrwhitt's groundbreaking edition of 1775-8, the first serious attempt to restore the genuine text. This is also Pickering's first major work as publisher - 'his first entirely characteristic production', according to Geoffrey Keynes (William Pickering, Publisher (p 15). The Canterbury Tales were apparently issued in Pickering's characteristic smooth cloth (red in this case), so the binding on this set, which certainly seems to be original, is surpising and must be uncommon.

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400.