George Gordon BYRON

First edition of Benjamin Delaroche's translation. Notes and commentary by Walter Scott, Thomas Moore, etc. Printed on fine laid paper. The copy has been extra-illustrated with 39 steel engravings from the album "Women of Byron," a type of collection very fashionable at the time, as there were also "Women of Balzac," "Women of Walter Scott," and "Women of Shakespeare," in which the heroines of the novels were depicted in engravings by English artists, considered masters of the genre during this period. Life of Byron by John Galt.
Contemporary half polished navy calf binding. Spine with 4 flat raised bands decorated with fillets and compartments, roulettes at head and tail. Gilt title and volume number. Navy marbled paper with wave pattern. Marbled edges. Traces of rubbing. Overall the paper is in very fine condition, with occasional light foxing at the tissue guards, in the margins of the engravings, at the beginning or end of volumes. Traces of an old label in the last compartments. Corner fold to second board of volume 4.
Handsome copy.

New edition, illustrated with a frontispiece portrait and 10 steel-engraved plates by Johannot, Geoffroy. Translation by Amédé Pichot.
Contemporary glazed navy half-calf binding signed at foot (signature illegible). Smooth spine decorated with a long mirrored tool with central ornament. Title and volume number gilt. Decorative fillets on covers. Beautiful marbled paper in blue, white and gold. Top edge gilt. Spine slightly darkened. Some corners slightly bumped. Light traces of rubbing. Paper of superb freshness, uncut, completely free of foxing (except in the margins of some engravings due to tissue guards which have not been removed); rare condition.
"New edition augmented with a historical notice on Lord Byron, all unpublished pieces and notes by Moore, Walter-Scott, Campbell, Guiford, Jeffrey, E. Brydges, Coleridge, Southey, Wilson, Hobhouse, Hunt, Dallas, Milman, Lockhart, Bowles, Heber, Medwin, Gamba, Croly, Ugo Foscolo, Ellis, Kennedy, Parry, Bulwer, Galt, Nathan, Lady Blessington, Mrs. Shelley. Contained in the definitive edition recently published in London". Besides the poetical works, Miscellanies, Speeches, correspondence, and the famous novella: The Vampire.

First edition for the first two volumes, new edition of the French translation for the third and final volume.
Half purple shagreen binding, spine with four fine raised bands decorated with richly ornamented double gilt compartments, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges, contemporary binding.
The first volume is illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of the author.
Some foxing.

Edition illustrated with a title vignette repeated on the cover, 8 in-text drawings as well as 8 original hors-texte etchings hand-colored with pochoir by Touchagues, one of 169 numbered copies on Arches laid paper, the only issue with 9 Japan and 22 Holland copies.
Our copy is expanded with 5 study plates at rear.
A small tear at head of spine which also has a lack at foot, endpapers lightly shaded, handsome interior condition.

Edition features original illustrations in purple and black of Frederick Carter and printed 550 numbered copies on vellum.
Publishers'binding half carton cream wove way back smooth, shimmering violet silk boards, first board hit a gilded illustration of Frederick Carter, gilded head.
autograph dedication of the author autograph signed and dated Frederick Carter in pencil below the justification of the draw, the name of the dedicatee having been properly cleared.
Nice copy.