DeCastro, Jacob | Actors, reminiscences, theater, Astley

DeCastro, Jacob

The Memoirs of J. Decastro, Comedian … Accompanied by … the Life of the Late Philip Astley … London: Sherwood, Jones, & Co., 1824

12mo (187 x 111 mm). Facsimile of holograph "birth certificate," folding plate of Astley handbill, extra-illustrated with over 30 plates, chiefly of actors; lacks frontispiece portrait but with residual offsetting to title-page, handbill with several tears and loss to inner margin, strong offsetting from many plates to text, occasional scattered foxing. Nineteenth-century red morocco over brown marbled boards, marbled endpapers, spine gilt, top edge gilt; extremities rubbed.

First edition, another copy, extra-illustrated with plates being in the main portraits of actors and actresses (many in costume).