VANITY FAIR. COLLECTION OF 45 VOLUMES, 1869-1914

folio, 44 volumes, 2312 (of 2303) plates (including folding plates), publisher’s cloth gilt, gilt edges, most with bookplate or gilt stamp of 'Society of Writers to Her Majesty's Signet', occasional spotting, two plates in volume 43 supplied from another copy and without accompanying text, extremities slightly worn with occasional small tears or loss [together with:] an additional volume containing 55 plates from Vanity Fair, 1913-14

AN EXCELLENT SET which boasts nine plates not listed in the contents. These are of the Earl of Beaconsfield and The Prince of Wales (twice) in Volume 10, "Power and Place", "Babble, Birth and Brummagem" in Volume 12, "Birth, Behaviour and Business" in Volume 13, "Newmarket" in Volume 17, "Austria in England" and George Bernard Shaw in Volume 37. The first volume notes 'Vol. I | Fifth Edition' on the title-page. The series ceased publication in 1912, but this set includes an additional volume which is bound to appear as a forty-fifth volume in the series. John Franks, who died in May 2017, once said of his Vanity Fair collection ‘it became quite an addiction’. It was an addiction that contributed to a life-long fascination, a deep knowledge and a significant collection. John Franks had a legal background: he served for twenty-four years on the Council of the Law Society and was Chairman of a publicly quoted company, a major charitable trust and the disciplinary Committee of Architects. He was author of The Company Director and the Law, first published in 1973.

He bought his first Vanity Fair album in the 1950s and collected a significant collection of original watercolours. The watercolours were sold by Christie’s South Kensington in December 2005. As that sale catalogue stated ‘he has decided to sell these original watercolour caricatures and retain his print collection, one of the most significant in private hands.’