1860-8 Chambers's Encyclopaedia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People

Description

First Edition, Illustrated, Leather Binding

The first edition of this extensive and important scholarly undertaking founded by William and Robert Chambers in 1859. Known as one of the most important English encyclopaedias of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it gained immense reputation for its accuracy and scholarliness. Complete with ten volumes from A to Z with index, providing universal knowledge. 

Illustrated with numerous wood engravings in text throughout. Bound in without the maps.

From the library at Julian Park, Hertfordshire, belonging to Audrey Pleydell-Bouverie. Audrey was the youngest daughter of an Anglo-American lumber and steel millionaire, sister to Edward James, a key figure in the Surrealist movement, and the illegitimate granddaughter of King Edward VII.

She was an English socialite known for her beauty and for charming various wealthy men, she was included in The Book of Beauty by Cecil Beaton. A patron of the arts, she assisted Viscount Carlow financially in the publication of limited editions of numerous works by leading literary figures such as T E Lawrence, James Joyce, Wyndham Lewis, and others. A hedonistic pursuer, she was recognised as one of the 'Bright Young Things'.