Half-Hours with the Best Authors (4 vols.)

London: Charles Knight, 1850. Good. A fair to good complete set of 4 volumes Original publisher's brown cloth, with gilt titles on spines and blindstamped with an ornate design on both covers This work went through multiple publishers during the 1850's, but since Charles Knight was both the editor and publisher of this set, and since is was signed by the initial owner as 1851, it is assumed that this is an early edition Binding are loose, with hinges mostly cracked, but all volumes are still intact Endpapers and title pages browned (title pages because of opposing frontispiece illustrations) but text overall is else clear and unmarked Each title page has both the signature ("Ignatius F Horstmann 1871") and signature stamp of Horstmann, a Catholic bishop of Cleveland His signature and date of 1851 are also on each front pastedown, but those signatures have been partially scratched out for some reason
Ignatius Frederick Horstmann (1840 â€" 1908) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church He served as Bishop of Cleveland from 1892 until his death in 1908
The Dewey number 808 K on the spine of each volume as well as on the title pages may have been the cataloguing of Horstmann's personal library, since there are no labels, marks or other indications that the books were ever in any other library 585, 532, 554, 590 pp.