"THE FATES SAID TO THEM BE KINGS OF TALENT, BUT NOT OF TALENT ENOUGH" (THOMAS CARLYLE)

(MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS) FOSTER, J.J. The Stuarts. Being Illustrations of the Personal History of the Family (Especially Mary Queen of Scots) in XVIth, XVIIth and XVIIIth Century Art. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1902. Two volumes. Folio (10-1/2 by 15 inches), full period-style red morocco, raised bands, gilt-decorated boards and spines, top edges gilt, uncut. $4500.

Signed limited first American "Edition de Luxe," number 20 of only 75 copies signed by the author, with two hand-colored frontispiece portraits, over 90 folio plates (two hand-colored), and numerous in-text illustrations.

"In the following pages an attempt is made to illustrate the characters, the persons, and some of the surroundings of the principal members of this ill-fated house; and, incidentally, of their friends and foes, from the days of James V. of Scotland down to those of Prince Charles Edward, in whose person the Stuarts may be said to have made their last appearance as a political force." Although focused on portraiture, the plates also include maps, scenes, and document facsimiles. Issued the same year in London in both trade and limited editions, as in New York. Ink shelf number to verso of title page in Volume I.

Scattered marginal faint foxing, not affecting images on plates; beuatifully bound.