British Theatre

London: Printed for J Bell. 1790-1799.

Thirty volumes. 12mo. 142x87mm. Beautifully bound in green straight grained morocco, gilt tooled border to upper and lower boards, gilt rule, title and volume number on spines. Marbled endpapers. Front pastedown has the bookplate of Clonbrock, one of the great Irish country house libraries much of which was bought by the National Library of Ireland.
A wonderful collection of ninety plays each with an engraved frontispiece showing a portrait of leading actor as a character from the play, an engraved title page and with letterpress title, a short biography of the author, and the dramatis personae for performances at Drury Lane and Covent Garden. Some slight foxing. The engraved frontispieces are after portraits by Samuel de Wilde who specialised in theatrical portraits. A very handsome set in excellent condition which provides an encyclopaedic insight into what audiences could hope to see on the stages of Georgian London.