[BINDING –– CHARLES LEWIS]. CAVENDISH, George (1497 – c. 1562). The Life of Cardinal Wolsey and Metrical Versions from the original Autograph Manuscript, with Notes. Chiswick: C. Whittingham for Harding, Triphook, and Lepard, 1825.

2 volumes, royal 8vo (252 x 152 mm). 9 engraved plates, including several portraits after Holbein (spotting mostly near margins of plates, also spotting to text near plates). Contemporary full–grain red morocco with a central gilt–stamped supralibros on both covers of Theodore Williams, spines in 6 compartments with raised bands, gilt–lettering in 4, edges gilt, broad turn–ins with several gilt rules and rosette cornerpieces, BOUND BY CHARLES LEWIS (bookbinders’ ticket in Vol. I). (Joints and extreme ends a bit darkened, small inked spot to fore edge of Vol. II but concealed by gilt).

Provenance: Theodore Williams (1785–1875), bibliophile known for his “magnificent library, which he had sumptuously bound…The majority [of which] were the work of Charles Lewis” (See The Bibliographical Society of London, British Armorial Bindings, at the University of Toronto).

LARGE PAPER, ONE OF ONLY 50 COPIES of “one of the most interesting and valuable specimens of biography in the English language” (Lowndes). THIS COPY CITED BY LOWNDES in Bibliographer’s Manual (London, 1869, see p. 396).