“Coaching Days and Coaching Ways”, W. Outram Tristram, Illustrated, London, 1901

W. Outram Tristram, (1859-1915): Coaching Days and Coaching Ways, with 214 Illustrations by Hugh Thomson and Herbert Railton, London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1901, in ¾ reddish tan calf leather binding with gilt and tooled spine signed Morrell Binder London.

This famous work celebrating the days of the public coach powered by horses was originally published in London in 1888. Its popularity ensured this second edition by Macmillan and Co., Limited, with two issues in 1893, one in 1894, and this special printing in fine binding in 1901. The binding here is 3/4 British reddish tan calf leather with striated buckram covers. The hubbed spine is expertly tooled and gilded with illustrative and decorative work, along with the date 1901. The edges of the page-tops are gilt, and the inside boards are of hand-marbled paper. Inside the frontispiece, on the very top left corner, is the binder’s signature stamp: “Morrell, Binder, London”.
The original 1888 edition was published by Richard Clay and Sons, Limited of London. This second Macmillan and Co. edition includes 214 illustrations by Hugh Thomson and Herbert Railton, and is 376 pages long. The former owner’s bookplate is pasted on the inside front cover. He added this book to his vast collection in 1929 while on a book-buying junket in London.
The book’s popularity stems from the advent of the motor-coach and motor-car, which were replacing this old transportation technology. Coaching lore and illustrations and objects became collecting fields, and the coaching days theme is still popular today. This rare volume is tight and clean, and would make an excellent gift or an addition to a collector’s library.