HEADS OF THE PEOPLE; Or, Portraits of the English.

Early edition. Two volumes. Publisher's original brown cloth with gilt pictorial spines. Illustrated with a frontispiece to each volume and 87 further wood-engraved plates drawn by Kenny Meadows and engraved by Orrin Smith (complete). A very good set, the bindings square and secure with a little cracking to the front and rear hinges of volume two. The contents with a little toning to page edges and the odd minor mark to margins are otherwise in very good order, clean throughout and remain free from any previous owners' inscriptions or stamps. An attractive set.

A wonderfully illustrated mid nineteenth-century satirical guide to the English people, covering all notable characters from chimney sweeps, street conjurers and factory children to undertakers, pawnbrokers, politicians and debutantes. Each individual is illustrated with a portrait, with the accompanying essays supplied by a variety of hands, most notably including William Makepeace Thackeray (the fashionable authoress, Captain Rook and Mr. Pigeon), Leigh Hunt (the omnibus conductor, the monthly nurse,) and Douglas Jerrold (fifteen entries, including the auctioneer, ballad singer, hangman, postman and pew opener). The publishing history of the work is a little unclear; originally issued in parts, the first edition in book form was published by Robert Tyas in 1840, with the present edition likely issued around the same time. Pleasing in the original cloth.