The Betrothed & The Talisman Walter Scott c1880s Leather Illustrated
 
The Betrothed & The Talisman By Walter Scott
c1880s – Antiquarian half-leather Waverley edition (marbled boards, illustrated)
 
Bibliographic Details
Full title: The Betrothed & The Talisman: A Tale of the Crusaders (two novels bound together).
Author: Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832).
Editor: Rev. P. Hately Waddell (1817–1891) – with notes, glossary, and critical commentary.
Publisher / Printer: W. P. Nimmo, Hay & Mitchell; printed by Morrison & Gibb Ltd., Edinburgh.
Date / Edition: Undated; publisher active 1883–1916; editor deceased 1891 – circa 1880s.
Binding & Format: Half thick leather over spine, corners, and board inner edges; marbled paper over boards; all edges marbled; marbled pastedowns and endpapers. No dust jacket.
Illustrations: Engraved black-and-white frontispieces with tissue guards and illustrated title pages for each novel.
Pagination: The Betrothed – 266 pages; The Talisman – 258 pages. All pages present.
Size & Weight: Approx. 19 × 13 × 3.9 cm; weight 729 g.
 
Exterior Condition
An attractive late-Victorian half-leather binding with gilt lettering on a black spine label and gilt decorative tooling. Marbled boards retain strong colour and pattern. Light wear consistent with age, including rubbing near to the edges and corners, minor surface marks, faint scratches, and fading to spine and light fading to the leather on the boards. Gilt detail clear and bright.
 
Interior Condition
Pages lightly toned as expected for a volume of this period, with occasional light foxing/other small marks – mainly to endpapers. Text pages are clean, neat, and largely uncreased. No inscriptions or annotations. Small binder’s label for “A. Brown & Sons, 26–29 Savile Street, Hull” on the front pastedown. No loose or missing leaves; all pages firmly bound. A very sound example, internally tidy and well preserved for its age.
 
Features & Collectibility
Decorative Waverley Novels edition, uniform with other late-19th-century Nimmo bindings.
Features gilt-tooled spine, marbled boards and edges, engraved frontispieces, and illustrated title pages.
Edited by Rev. P. Hately Waddell, whose death in 1891 helps date the issue.
A beautiful collectible for admirers of Sir Walter Scott’s historical fiction and fine Victorian bindings.