The Macdermots of Ballycloran
Thomas Cautly Newby, 1847.
First edition, first issue with title pages dated 1847. Three volumes. Contemporary half green morocco over marbled boards. Top edge gilt. A little wear to the corners of the binding and to the boards, but generally attractive. Internally very fresh with just a little foxing to the preliminary leaves. A very well preserved copy of a fabled rarity.
Trollope's rare first work, described by Michael Sadleir as, "not only the rarest of Trollope's full length works, but one of the rarest first editions in the whole range of nineteenth century fiction." (Trollope A Bibliography)
Although Newby's ledgers show 400 copies were printed (itself a tiny number), of these "the greater part... would have been taken by libraries and ultimately destroyed. Of the balance remaining to the publisher some were reissued in 1848 with the second title page and the remainder pulped." (Sadleir). One can see therefore how presentable copies became of the utmost scarcity even from the point of publication. In recent commerce it has been tantamount to unobtainable with just a single copy offered at auction in the last 40 years and ardent collectors despairing of ever seeing a copy, let alone owning one.
Sadleir 1
Stock ID: 44912
£75,000.00
