Old Mortality & The Black Dwarf Walter Scott c1880s Leather Illustrated
 
Old Mortality & The Black Dwarf; A Legend of Montrose By Sir Walter Scott
c1880s Antiquarian half-leather Waverley edition (marbled boards, illustrated)
 
Bibliographic Details
 
Full title: Old Mortality & The Black Dwarf; A Legend of Montrose (three works bound together).
Author: Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832).
Editor: Rev. P. Hately Waddell (1817–1891), with notes, glossary, and critical apparatus.
Publisher / Printer: W. P. Nimmo, Hay & Mitchell; printed by Morrison & Gibb Ltd., Edinburgh.
Date / Edition: Undated; publisher active 1883–1916; editor died 1891, and so circa 1880s.
Binding & Format: Half thick leather over spine, corners and board inner edges; marbled paper boards; all edges marbled; marbled pastedowns & endpapers. No dust jacket.
Illustrations: Engraved black-and-white frontispieces with tissue guards and illustrated title pages (plates present).
Pagination: Old Mortality – 336 pp.; The Black Dwarf – 292 pp.; A Legend of Montrose included. All pages present.
Size & Weight: Approx. 19 × 13 × 4.0 cm; weight approx. 774 g.
 
Exterior Condition
 
Handsome late-Victorian half-leather binding with gilt lettering on a black spine label and gilt decorative tooling. Marbled boards retain attractive pattern and colour. Light wear consistent with age: gentle rubbing at corners and board edges, small marks, faint scratches and mild fading to portions of the spine. A small hole in the inner edge of the back pastedown leather (inside the cover); cosmetic only. Overall robust and display-worthy.
 
Interior Condition
 
Pages lightly tanned and generally clean for their age. Light foxing mainly to preliminaries and occasional leaves; otherwise, neat and uncreased. Marbled pastedowns show minor handling marks. There is a light crack in the gutter between the front pastedown and front free endpaper (hinge area, as shown in the photos), but text block remains secure. No pen or pencil inscriptions. All pages for Old Mortality, The Black Dwarf, and A Legend of Montrose are present and tightly bound.
A handsome, complete late-Victorian Waverley volume.
 
Features & Collectibility
 
Decorative late-Victorian Waverley Novels edition, attractive to collectors of Scott and decorative bindings.
Editor P. Hately Waddell provides scholarly apparatus and dates the issue to late-19th century.
Collector features: gilt spine, marbled boards & edges, engraved frontispieces with tissue guards and illustrated title pages.