"MEN ARE SUBJECT TO TEMPTATIONS, TO FAILURES, TO DELINQUENCIES, TO CALAMITIES, OF WHICH WOMEN CAN SCARCELY DREAM": THE WITS AND BEAUX OF SOCIETY, 1890, WITH 20 PHOTOGRAVURE PORTRAITS

WHARTON, Grace and Philip, pseudonyms of THOMSON, Katherine and John Cockburn. The Wits and Beaux of Society. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, [1890]. Two volumes. Octavo, 20th-century three-quarter red calf, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, marbled boards and endpapers, top edge gilt. $900.

Second edition of this entertaining, gossipy collection of biographies of British aristocrats, with 20 photogravures by the Gebbie & Husson Co., handsomely bound.

Victorian authors Katherine and John Cockburn Thomson were a mother-and-son writing team known for their fun, gossipy approach to biography. Their best known works are Queens of Society and this similar work on famous society men, first published in London in 1860. The men profiled include: George Villier, Second Duke of Buckingham; Count de Grammont, St. Evremond, and Lord Rochester; Beau Fielding; Clubs and Club-Wits Under Queen Anne; William Congreve; Beau Nash; Philip, Duke of Wharton; Lord Hervey; Philip Dormer Stanhope, Fourth Earl of Chesterfield; The Abbe Scarron; Francois, Duc de la Rochefoucault and the Duc de Saint-Simon; Horace Walpole; George Selwyn; Richard Brinsley Sheridan; Beau Brummell; Theodore Edward Hook; Sydney Smith; George Bubb Dodington, Lord Melcombe.

Interiors generally quite nice, only minor wear to bindings, mild toning to spines. A lovely copy in near-fine condition.