History of The Society of Dilettanti, Lionel Cust & Sidney Colvin, 1898, Limited edition

History of The Society of Dilettanti. Compiled by Lionel Cust, M.A., Director of the National Portrait Gallery and edited by Sidney Colvin, M.A., Keeper of the Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, sometime Secretary of the Society.

Provenance; from the library of the late William St Clair (1937 - 2021), British historian, academic and author. William St Clair signature to first free endpaper, and his pencil annotations to rear endpapers. Please see our other listings for related works. 

Printed for the Society by Macmillan and Co., Limited, London and The Macmillan Company, New York. Printed in Oxford. 1898 first edition. Limited to 350 numbered copies, this being number 163. Very scarce - Worldcat only identifies 4 copies of this 1898 edition as being held by libraries. It is likely that most copies would be held privately by members of the Society.

A good olive green cloth hardback, with gilt titles to spine. Covers are bumped, scuffed and worn, with sunning to spine. Slight give in the binding as the first inner joint is split to webbing, and rear endpaper also split. Bookplate of Almeric High Paget, 1st Baron Queenborough. Also with the book is a 4pp document headed 'Portraits from the Collection of The Society of Dilettanti exhibited at Agnew's 15th December 1975 - 9th January 1976', written by Brinsley Ford, Secretary of the Society.

The text is good overall - bright, but with scattered foxing. Plates are clean and bright, although the tissue guards are toned. The rough cut edges, as issued, have some fraying. 

Text in English.

ix + 1pp + 336pp + Tissue Guarded Plates.

Weight approximately 1.5kg (unpacked).

Dimensions: 

Approximately 263mm high x 181mm wide x 52mm deep.