ELIOT (George). Felix Holt The radical. In three volumes. William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1866. 4pp. integral advertisements at end of volume three, followed by publisher's inserted 20pp. Catalogue, undated, but not listing this title either among Eliot's works or under the heading ‘In the press' on the final page; deep old rose straight grain morocco cloth, brown calf spine labels ruled and lettered (with short title and volume number only) gilt from type,, and laid on; edges sprinkled blue; yellow coated end-papers. Spines faded, and cloth very slightly worn at extreme head and tail bands, with small cracks at head of two back joints; otherwise a nice copy.

Proof copy or prebind: almost certainly a printer's reference copy. V. Sadleir, 814 and 814a; Wolff, 2058 and 2058a; Carter, ‘Binding Variants', pp.111-2; and Parrish, p.20 for varieties of the trade issue. The earliest cased copies published by Blackwoods (Carter ‘A' and ‘B'), were either five or four hole stabbed throughout, with, respectively, the alternate gatherings being either four and three or four and two hole sewn, those in Carter's ‘A' binding inspected by ourselves being five hole stabbed, those in Carter's ‘B' binding four hole stabbed. The present copy, which has not been resewn, is four hole stabbed, the alternate gatherings being four and two hole sewn, as in Carter ‘B', but volume three has the Catalogue present only in copies of the relatively uncommon Carter ‘A' (including authorial and deposit copies). The end-papers are identical in colour, quality, and texture with those used both in Carter ‘A' and ‘B', the front end-paper of volume one bearing the neat inscription in pencil: "John Kerr / Printer / 27 Thistle Street / 1866"; that to volume three a similar inscription in ink, in the same hand, though without the address. The date of these inscriptions makes clear that the casing is contemporary, and the identity of end-papers and sewing method with those in Blackwoods issued copies suggest that the present volumes likewise are the work of Blackwoods' anonymous binder. We can discover no formal connection between John Kerr and Blackwoods' Printing Office, printers of ‘Felix Holt', and we have not succeeded in locating a Post Office Directory for 1866. The 1867 Directory, however, gives the address of ‘Blackwood & Sons, printers' as 32, Thistle Street - almost opposite to number 27 - and it seems likely that the present is a pre-production copy bound up - as cheaply as possible - for Blackwoods' use, and retained at the printing office for reference purposes, which, being no longer needed or possibly a duplicate, found itself passed on as a reading copy to Blackwoods' close trade neighbour.

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