Octavo. Period half calf over tree-calf pattern boards, spine in six gilt-ruled compartments with foliate tools, red morocco title label lettered in gilt. Illustrated with engraved frontispiece ("Arrival of the Chargé d'Affaires"), illustrated pictorial title page, and numerous full-page plates by "Phiz" (Hablot Knight Browne). pp. xv, 344.
An early Curry Dublin printing of the first book edition, with the Phiz illustrations intact who was simultaneously illustrating Dickens; Lever and Dickens were mutual admirers and Lever held several works in Dickens's personal library. Anthony Trollope famously praised Lever's novels as sounding exactly like his conversation.
With the armorial bookplate of Charles Kent, Vicar of Ludford to front pastedown. Moderate to heavy foxing and spotting on title page, frontispiece, and moderate plates; text pages mildly spotted but legible; binding sound and square with light rubbing to boards and spine extremities; gilt on label bright. A well-preserved copy in a handsome period binding with good named provenance.
