BOADEN’S MEMOIRS OF MRS. SIDDONS, EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED WITH 40 PLATES

BOADEN, James. Memoirs of Mrs. Siddons. London: Gibbings, 1893. Royal octavo, contemporary three-quarter crushed blue morocco gilt, raised bands, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Housed in a custom slipcase. $850.

Signed limited first edition of Boaden’s biography of one of the premiere tragic actresses on the late 18th-century English stage, number 26 of only 150 large-paper copies, extra-illustrated with 40 plates (including 10 hand-colored) and handsomely bound by Bayntun.

From the famed Kemble family, Sarah Siddons was sister to John Philip Kemble, Charles Kemble, Stephen Kemble, Ann Hatton and Elizabeth Whitlock, and the aunt of Fanny Kemble. Her portrayal of Lady Macbeth was so powerful that for decades she was considered to essentially own the role. The hand-colored frontispiece portrait is of Joshua Reynolds’ famous portrait of Siddons, Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse.

A fine copy.