RUSKIN, John

Modern Painters [six volumes]

London, George Allen, 1897 (three volumes, 'New Edition in Small Form') and 1898 (three volumes, 'Second Edition in Small Form').

Octavo, six volumes, over 350 pages per volume with hundreds of illustrations plus numerous plates.

Cloth lightly rubbed and marked; scattered foxing; an excellent set.

The flyleaf of the first volume bears the following inscription: 'These volumes were given by Sir Samuel Way Bart. C.J. to John William Downer & Una Stella Russell as a wedding present. 29 Nov. 1899'. The handwriting is not that of Way or Downer; we suggest Lady Way as a possibility. The 'Australian Dictionary of Biography' will supply all the missing details about these significant nineteenth century Australian legal and political identities.