OLD COACHING DAYS, ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN STURGESS, HANDSOMELY BOUND

HARRIS, Stanley. Old Coaching Days… Illustrated by John Sturgess. London: Richard Bentley & Son, 1882. Octavo, early 20th-century three-quarter red morocco, raised bands, spine compartments stamped with equestrian motifs, marbled boards and endpapers, all edges gilt. $550.

First edition of this “history of road traveling and the various circumstances related,” with 12 full-page tinted lithographs by John Sturgess.

In this work, regular contributor to Field and Land & Water, Stanley Harris has “collected from various sources a considerable amount of information touching the mode of traveling before the introduction of railways, and I believe there will be found in these pages much that will interest and amuse those who are too young to have known the road in its palmy days, while the perusal of them may bring back to the memory of older men pleasing reminiscences of days long past.” Hunting and racing artist for the Illustrated London News, John Sturgess “spent many years studying the action and behavior of horses and their anatomy and was consequently able to capture the reality, dangers and excitement of the hunting and steeplechase field” (Barkus Farm). He illustrated this as well as Harris’ second book on coach roads The Coaching Age (1885).

An about-fine copy, with only a bit of spotting and small archival paper repair, handsomely bound.