The Works, in Natural History, of the late Rev. Gilbert White. Comprising the Natural History of Selborne; the Naturalist's Calendar; and Miscellaneous Observations, extracted from his Papers. To which are added, a Calendar and Observations, by W. Markwick. Two volumes in one. Printed for J. White, Fleet Stret, by T. Bansley, Bolt Court. 1802. [iii]-viii, 392; [1]f, 300 printed pages. 4 plates -2 hand-coloured. Lacking the half titles. A little light spotting. New endpapers. 133 x 211 mm. Inner gilt dentelles. All edges marbled, but faded. Contemporary full, panelled, diced calf, featuring a central octagonal panel of light brown with eight concentric gilt corner circles, on a stained darker ground with scrolling gilt borders. Rebacked with raised bands and gilt tooled decorarions, using original green label with gilt titling. Though in an unsigned binding, this work was possibly influenced by James Edwards of Halifax -Edwards bindery was most productive in the 1780s and 1790s. Although books were not always bound as soon as they were published, the imprint often gives an indication of the date of the binding. Edwards used calf extensively, and produced different decorative styles from relatively plain gold-tooled bindings to designs which incorporated pictures on the covers and elaborate effects caused by the addition of acid & colour. Traditional gold-tooling was also used, in particular with scrolling patterns. The toning shades of brown and terracotta around the inner panel have a tendency to fade, but appears quite well preserved in this example. Calf, like other immature skins, is not very durable, and did not tend to keep its pristine beauty -this shows some signs of edge-wear, particularly at the corners. Dorothy Wordsworth wrote (September 1795) "We spent a forenoon at Edwards when the Empsons were with us and were highly delighted. Mr Rawson bought me Mrs Barbauld's edition of the Pleasures of Imagination & the Pleasures of Memory both very elegantly bound" -no trip to Halifax by the gentry was complete without a souvenir from the Edwards establishment!
Markwick's 1802 edition, arranged by Dr. J. Aikin is the first collected edition and comprises White's most famous work, The Natural History of Selborne, originally published in 1798, with A Calendar and Observations by W. Markwick added.
"On White's death [1793] his literary papers were passed by his relatives to John
Aikin MD (1747-1822), whose first response was to extract previously unpublished
material from the journals and issue it as A Naturalist's Calendar, with Observations
in Various Branches of Natural History (1795). He then advised publication of
White's collected writings in natural history, and this was accomplished in Selborne
(1802). This volume, comprising first the republication of Selborne (1789) without
the letters on the antiquities, and A Naturalist's Calendar (1795), and a second
calendar of natural occurences and memoranda, parallel to Aikin's 1795 publication,
but prepared by W. Marwick of Catisfield, Sussex, was prefaced by a brief memoir of
White written by John White, son of Benjamin White, the bookseller" - New Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography.