Bellchambers, Edmund General biographical dictionary London 1835
Bellchambers, Edmund. A general biographical dictionary, containing lives of the most eminent persons of all ages and nations. London: Allan Bell & Co.; and Simpkin & Marshall; Oliver & Boyd, and Fraser & C. (Edinburgh); W. Curry, Jun. & Co. (Dublin); and Bancks & Co. (Manchester), 1835. xv(1), 368; x, 372; xvi, 376; xi(1), 364 pp. + an engraved frontispiece and engraved title-page in each volume, and 59 other plates. Four vols., 16mo, original purple figured cloth (spines evenly faded). First edition. A biographical dictionary compiled by a single hand, in a tiny format; the volumes measure four inches in height, and the typeface is very small. Bellchambers appears to have worked alphabetically, and to have somewhat run out of steam. Vols. I and II cover the letters A-C, Vol. III contains D-N, and Vol. IV has O-Z; included are notices of Jane Austen, Keats, Shelley, and other writers of the early 19th-century who died young (Wordsworth and Coleridge thus do not appear). With 59 plates, each with five portraits; each frontispiece has five portraits as well, and each engraved title has one, giving a total of 320 portraits in all. The title-page of Vol. I calls for 240 portraits only, but those of Vols. II-IV corrected the figure to 320. In very fine condition, and no doubt very scarce thus.
£325
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