The Rivals Sheridan circa 1889 Limited to 100 Copies Illustrated By Gregory
 
Bibliographic Details
Title: The Rivals
Author: Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Illustrator: Frank M. Gregory
Date: circa 1889
Edition: Limited edition of 100 copies. The number in this copy has been left blank. 
Publisher: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington Limited, St Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, London.
Format: Large folio.
Pagination: xx, 61 pages, plus illustrated plates. All pages and illustrations have been checked and are present.
Illustrations: Five colour plates (including frontispiece) reproducing Gregory's watercolour designs and numerous black-and-white illustrations, including plates, vignettes, tailpieces and illustrations within the text.
Dimensions: Approximately 36.5 × 30 × 3 cm.
Weight: Approximately 2,198 grams.
Dust Jacket: None issued/present.
Special Features: Limited edition of 100 copies; five colour plates; numerous black-and-white illustrations; decorative pictorial binding; gilt top edge; untrimmed lower and fore edges; decorated endpapers.
 
Edition / Publication
The volume is undated. Its publisher's imprint gives Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington Limited, St Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, Fleet Street.
Contemporary publisher material confirms this exact publisher and address in 1888 and 1889. The address therefore provides strong evidence for a date after the firm's move to St Dunstan's House, while the form of the publisher's name supports a date in the late 1880s.
 
Historical & Bibliographic Context
The Rivals was Sheridan's first play and was first performed at Covent Garden on 17 January 1775. Its initial performance was unsuccessful, after which Sheridan revised the play before its successful revival on 28 January. It subsequently became one of the enduring comedies of the English stage.
The play is set in Bath and centres on the courtship of Lydia Languish and Captain Jack Absolute, alongside the comic entanglements of characters including Bob Acres, Sir Lucius O'Trigger, Sir Anthony Absolute and the celebrated Mrs Malaprop.
 
About the Author
Richard Brinsley Sheridan was an Irish-born playwright, theatre manager and politician. His principal comedies include The Rivals, The School for Scandal and The Critic. He later became associated with the management of Drury Lane Theatre and also enjoyed a long parliamentary career.
 
About the Illustrator
Frank M. Gregory was a nineteenth-century illustrator whose work included richly decorative illustrated editions of literary and dramatic texts. His illustrations for The Rivals combine colour compositions with numerous monochrome drawings, vignettes and decorative elements.
The present edition is particularly notable for its five colour plates, reproducing Gregory's watercolour designs, alongside its extensive series of black-and-white illustrations.
 
Exterior Condition
Half-bound in blue leather with blue cloth-covered boards. The front board is elaborately decorated with gilt, red and black pictorial and ornamental designs, with gilt borders separating the leather and cloth. The spine has gilt lettering.
The binding remains intact, robust and attractive, with good shelf presence. There is fading and rubbing to the spine, together with light rubbing to the board edges and corners and some light surface marks and scratches consistent with age and handling.
The top edge is gilt. The fore and lower edges remain untrimmed, giving the volume an attractive and distinctly nineteenth-century appearance.
 
Interior Condition
Decorated green and gilt floral pastedowns and free endpapers. The pages are generally clean and neat, with light foxing principally affecting the preliminary leaves and endpapers. There are occasional small or light marks.
The large-format sheets have been roughly cut, resulting in some crinkling and small edge tears to the untrimmed margins. These do not affect the text or illustrations.
Several of the protective tissue guards to the illustrated plates have tears or creasing. The tissue guard to the frontispiece has some old tape. The plates themselves remain present and unaffected.
All pages and illustrations have been checked and are present.
There is an extremely light crack to the gutter beside page 18, but the text block remains secure and tightly bound.
 
Writing / Ownership Marks
The front flyleaf bears the pencilled note “Proof Plates”. The reverse of the front free endpaper has a pencilled note referring to the limitation of 100 copies and “proof plates”. These annotations are of interest, but there is insufficient evidence to establish that the volume itself is an artist's proof or proof copy.
The front flyleaf also bears the ink inscription “A Hybert Hull. 1932”. A further pencilled “70” appears on the reverse of the plate facing page 60. No other ownership markings have been noted.
 
Collector Summary
A handsome and substantial limited-edition Rivals, dating from circa 1889, illustrated by Frank M. Gregory and restricted to only 100 copies. Its large folio format, elaborate decorative binding, five colour plates and extensive monochrome illustration programme make it an attractive example of late Victorian illustrated book production.
The volume is complete, structurally sound and visually impressive, while retaining interesting ownership and pencilled annotations.