8vo. xvi, [2], 291pp, [1]. With 114 colour illustrations in the text. Bound by Douglas Foulis of Edinburgh in contemporary gilt-tooled red morocco, A.E.G. Lightly rubbed. Marbled endpapers, inked inscription to recto of front blank fly-leaf, scattered spotting.

A handsome copy of an illustrated edition of Anglo-Irish author Oliver Goldsmith's (1730-1774) most renowned work. First published in 1766, The Vicar of Wakefield would become one of the defining novels of the eighteenth-century. Sadly the author was to profit little from the sensational success of the work, as Samuel Johnson had sold the rights for £60 in order to relieve Goldsmith from the pursuit of debtors.