Edgeworth Family.

each illustration c.290 x 185mm., watercolour, ink and pencil, depicting "The Gossoon", "Young Sir Condy", "Jason Quirk", "Thady's Shister", "The Great Sir Patrick O'Shauglin", "Judy M^cQuirk", "Sir Condy Rackrent and his Lady" and "The Gauger", all captioned, some with quotations from the text, all mounted, framed and glazed, some browning, occasional spotting and staining, some frames slightly damaged

The Edgeworth family at Edgeworthstown; thence by descent

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, when appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Original watercolour illustrations by the Edgeworth children for the comic masterpiece "Castle Rackrent"

This series of illustrations is thought to have been drawn by various of the author's younger siblings and half-siblings on the family's estate at Edgeworthstown: there were 18 surviving children from Richard Edgeworth's four marriages. 

W.B. Yeats has called Castle Rackrent (1800), Maria Edgeworth's first and probably finest novel,  "one of the most inspired chronicles written in English" (Representative Irish Tales, 1891), and Padraic Colum wrote that "One can read it in an hour. Then one knows why the whole force of England could not break the Irish people". Castle Rackrent is often regarded as the first fully developed historical novel and the first true regional novel in English. Set before 1782 the high-spirited tale, unreliably narrated by the racy Thady Quirk, devoted steward to three generations of the Rackrents, satirises Anglo-Irish landlords and the mismanagement of their estates, just at the time when the English and Irish parliaments were working towards formalising the Act of Union.