MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF SIR HUMPHRY DAVY, BART.

First edition. Two volumes. Handsome contemporary full green calf, gilt ruled and blind decorated to the boards, expertly rebacked, four raised bands, gilt decorated compartments, gilt titles on red morocco labels to the spine. Gilt inner dentelles. Marbled endpapers. Marbled page egdes. 8vo. Vol I: portrait frontispiece xii, 507pp; Vol II: vii, 419 [errata leaf]. A very attractive set, the bindings square and tight, the contents with a contemporary gift inscription (on leaving Eton from Charles Newdigate [Newdegate] to [Sir] Francis Edward Scott) to the front blank of volume one and a little marking to the top corner of the half title of volume two are otherwise clean and bright throughout.

An early biography of the chemist inventor Sir Humphry Davy, by his brother, written using the additional papers in his possession, and partly in response to John Aryton Paris' 1831 biography which Dr. John felt had failed to convey Sir Humphry's character as a man and philosopher.