PORTRAITS OF CELEBRATED RACEHORSES OF THE PAST AND PRESENT CENTURIES...BEGINNING IN 1702 AND ENDING IN 1870... by Taunton, Thomas Henry - 1887

London: Sampson Low, et al., 1887. Four volumes. Small thick quarto. Full contemporary pebbled red morocco, a.e.g. Frontispiece in each volume, and profusely illustrated with collotypes, line-engravings, and photo-engravings. Spines a bit darkened, some rubbing at extremities and small surface scrape at toe of one spine, crown of one joint nicked, prelims of fourth volume foxed, otherwise a very good set, with the bookplates of John M. Schiff. First edition of this standard work in the field, which according to the preface, "...is designed not only for those more or less acquainted with the history of the Turf, and who may have acquired an abiding interest in all that concerns it, but for such of the general community as may desire to know something of those equine celebrities which have figured, in the most captivating of all our national pastimes, as winners of the three great classic races, of the Ascot, Goodwood, and Doncaster Cups, and of the other cups, stakes, and matches at different race meetings throughout the kingdom, during the past and present centuries." PODESCHI 235 & 238.