Heading:
Author: Blackstone, William
Title: Commentaries on the Laws of England
Place Published: Oxford
Publisher:Clarendon Press
Date Published: 1770
Description: 4 volumes. 4 volumes. [4], viii, 485; [viii], 520, xix; [viii], 455, [1] blank, xxvii; [viii], 436, vii, [1] blank, [39] pp. Folding Table of Descents and Table of Consanguinity. (4to) 26.7x20.6 cm (10½x8"), rebacked calf, original spines laid down, gilt, red and black morocco lettering pieces. Fourth edition."Blackstone's great work on the laws of England is the extreme example of justification of an existing state of affairs by virtue of its history...Until the Commentaries, the ordinary Englishman had viewed the law as a vast, unintelligible and unfriendly machine; nothing but trouble, even danger, was to be expected from contact with it. Blackstone's great achievement was to popularize the law and the traditions which had influenced its formation..." (PMM). Grolier English 52; PMM 212; Rothschild 407 (all for first edition). Eller 5. Each volume with the armorial bookplate of Thomas Tipping.

Extremities worn, covers stained and scuffed; hinges cracked some repaired, bottom quarter to half of textblock dampstained throughout, bookplates and other ownership marks.