Saunders, John; Marston, Westland. The National Magazine (vols I. & II). London: The National Magazine Company, 1857-1858. First Editions. [6747]
Two separate volumes in publisher's red cloth, decorated in blind & gilt, all page edges gilt. 8 x 11 inches, viii., 416; iv., 416 clean pp. Ex library (special collections) recently acquired by us with a large lot of antiquarian periodicals. Bookplates, labels and stamps, generally limited to end papers and title pages; infrequent elsewhere. The bindings look very good, but the end paper hinges are weak/torn, with the first and last several leaves of both volumes detached, page edges brittle. Fair. Hardcover.
The Magazine is profusely illustrated with woodcuts both in text and full-page. The contents might be described as of interest to Victorian middle class country living, with a wide range of topics, from hints to raising chickens, coin collecting, home decoration, art, and the best in fiction and literature.
John Saunders (1810-1895), English novelist, journalist, and dramatist; founded The People's Journal in 1846, one of the earliest illustrated newspapers. "In 1856-7 Saunders, together with John Westland Marston, conducted the short-lived National Magazine...The early numbers had excellent contributions from Sydney Dobell, Mrs. Crowe, and other writers of mark, and illustrations after young artists of genius like Arthur Hughes and W. L. Windus, and with adequate capital the enterprise would probably have succeeded." - DNB.
