THE SECOND WORLD WAR. The Gathering Storm; Their Finest Hour; The Grand Alliance; The Hinge of Fate; Closing the Ring; Triumph and Tragedy.
Cassell & Co. ltd. London. 1948-54, 1948.
SIX VOLUMES. FIRST EDITIONS, 1st impressions. 8vo. (8.6 x 5.8 inches). Illustrated throughout with maps and plans, many folding. A little foxing to the fore edges of a couple of volumes, otherwise a very good bright and clean set throughout. Publishers black cloth with gilt lettering to the spines. Top edges dyed deep red, which has now faded just a little on some of the volumes. Patterned grey and white endpapers with rampant lion and Churchill's initials, designed by Lynton Lamb. In the publishers original dustwrappers with the same design background. Some toning to the spines and also a few very small chips and creases to a couple of edges, particularly the top corner of the spine hinge of volume four, but generally very good wrappers with the spine lettering, including the red volume numbers and titles, just a little faded but still fairly bright on all six volumes. The red ink used for the volume numbers and sub titles is particularly prone to fading and copies without fading of the red, like this one, are hard to find with it faded to being unreadable on many sets. A nice set of first editions of Churchill's monumental history of World War Two. ---- Loosely inserted is an invite card from 94 Eaton Place, in London, where Churchill's Daughter Mary Soames lived for several years with her Husband Christopher. I cannot identify the invitees, other than their first names, but is a nice curio to add to the set.
Item #11730
Price: £825.00