ROBERT BURNS’ WORKS: ONE OF ONLY 17 SETS FINELY ILLUSTRATED WITH ETCHINGS

BURNS, Robert. The Complete Works of Robert Burns. Philadelphia: Gebbie, 1896. Twelve volumes. Octavo, contemporary full dark blue crushed morocco, gilt-ruled boards, gilt-decorated spines with thistle motif, gilt dentelles, red watered silk endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut and unopened. $0.

Limited edition set, number 7 of only 17 copies of the Skibo edition, attractively bound. Illustrated with 60 splendid etchings, including a frontispiece portrait of Burns, as well as a number of woodcuts, maps and facsimiles.

This remarkable and comprehensive set, described as "self-interpreting," was intended to interpret and translate the Scottish dialect in Burns' poems for American and English readers. "For the first time the English-speaking public is put in a position to understand Burns readily, to enjoy his caustic wit, his genial humor, his wondrous power of fancy, and to appreciate his unrivalled richness of diction and felicity of expression" (from the editor's preface). With text in both dialect and "translated."

Seven of the volumes have been rebacked with the original spines laid down. An attractively bound and finely illustrated set.