The Works of Laurence Sterne, with a Life of the Author

London (Leicester Sqaure): Bickers & Son, 1885. 1st Thus . Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. Stothard, Thomas. Complete in two volumes. 1st thus (the Browne edited text of Sterne's works, with illustrations by Thomas Stothard, was first published, in four volumes, by Bickers and Son in 1873; it was re-issued, again in four volumes, by Bickers and Son in 1885). This is first time it was issued in two volumes (with renumbered pages. Volume 1: [5], x-xliii, 646pp, tissued-guarded frontispiece and three further like illustrations. Volume II: [4] 670pp, with six tissued-guarded illustrations. Uniformly bound in illustrated brown trade cloth with gilt lettering to front and spine. Black endpapers. Title pages in red and black. The boards are a little rubbed and rounded on corners and spine ends, with minor fraying at spine tips, and a few insignificant marks. The front endpapers in both volumes show signs of a bookplate having been removed. While the text block edges are a little browned, internally the volumes are neat, clean and bright barring some very occasional light spotting; and they remain tight and firm in their binding. This two volume set is not referenced in bibliographical sources for Sterne, which feature only Bickers' four volume set of the same year. Only one other copy traceable - that held by Penn Libraries, at the University of Pennsylvania - which came from the collection of a renown Sterne collector, Geoffrey Day which the Library purchased in 2018. A large and heavy set which may require an additional charge for overseas delivery.