The Twenty-shilling series of colour plate books produced by A & C Black publishers of London & Edinburgh were a masterpiece of Edwardian British letterpress three-colour printing. They were published from 1901 onwards, each with up to 100 colour plates bound in highly decorative cloth bindings.
At a time when foreign travel was rare, these magnificent volumes brought the world into the living rooms of the Edwardian family home.
Over ninety volumes were published, all at the affordable price of one pound. Many were illustrated by leading watercolour artists of the day.
A one-owner collection of this highly collectable series is being offered for sale, mainly in lots of mutiples of six books, in our next antiquarian book auction on the 19th March 2014. The pick of these is a lot that includes five volumes still in their rare original dust-wrappers.
A & C Black volume (BK11)
