TRAITS AND STORIES OF THE IRISH PEASANTRY (TWO VOLUMES, COMPLETE)

Dublin, Ireland: William Curry, Jun., and Co, 1844. New Edition. Leather-bound. Very Good Minus. Phiz Harvey Mac Manus Franklin. Octavo 9 3/8 in. x 6 1/4 in.
NOTE: Spotting to most of the plates, but for the most part, to margins. Darkened edges, and offsetting to the opposite pages of many of the images, but no evident spotting or foxing to the text pages except for the aforementioned offsetting.

Rebound floral-decorated paper over boards, red morocco (goat skin), ruled, over tips, gilt ruling to spines, and like lettering to black leather labels in one of three compartments formed by four raised bands at spine. New light- beige endpapers front and rear, and new sewn-in head-bands to both volumes.Deckled fore-edges. Prior to title pages of this new edition are illustrated original edition title-pages and frontispieces in tri-tone, featuring likeness of author in study with dog and book and with his signature in facsimile below; elaborate title page illustrations after H. Griffith's "Patent Process" on steel, quite fine and involved, to both volumes. Title pages to this new edition, being printed in London by Bradbury and Evans, simply note the presence of an autobiographical introduction, explanatory notes, and with illustrations on wood and steel throughout by Phiz, Harvey, Mac Manus and Franklin in-text, half-page, and full-page. Delightfully complicated initials, the first, incorporating the tome's entire title on a bed of three-leaf clovers. Others depict weddings and pastoral scenes, agriculture and animal husbandry, etc., as befits the focus on "Ned McKeowne," "Larry McFarland," and other Ireland-themed stereotypes and caricatures of national character and activity. Thirteen chapters to Volume I, with 23 etchings; prelims, xxiv [1], 2-427 + publisher's ad; Volume II contains another eight chapters and 15 illustrations, with prelims, 2-429 pp., and a different publisher's ad. William Carleton's Wikipedia entry notes his birth on March 4, 1794 in Prolusk/Prillisk, Clogher, County Tyrone, and death on January 30, 1869 and the fact of his father having been a Roman Catholic tenant farmer who begat 14 children on as many acres of land. He imparted to this son a love of Ireland, folklore and story-telling. He converted to Protestantism following (Catholic) religious pilgrimage, narrated in another work, The Lough Derg Pilgrim." The engravings produced by the H. Griffith's Patent Process improved upon if not replaced the earlier predominance of engraving of copper plates, steel being harder but producing sharper, harder, more precise and distinct lines (Gascoigne). The initials and historiated initials reward close scrutiny greatly, and the engravings augment the text well.