The GREAT Universal Encyclopedia Illustrated.

The GREAT Universal Encyclopedia Illustrated.

Vol. 1-54 in two series. Series I, T. 1-48. Series II, T. 1-6 in 27 volumes. Warsaw 1890-1914. art printing house of S. Sikorski. 4, p. (ca. 900 each), cloth binding. Orig. of period, embossing with gilt.
Nineteen volumes in dark toning, remaining volumes in lighter toning. Binding done in the bindery of the Polish Bookstore in Lviv B. Połoniecki. A rare variant of the publisher's binding which makes it unique. The best recommendation of the offer is the opinion of W. Łysiak in "Empireum" (Warsaw 2004, p. 555) - "the greatest Polish encyclopedia of all time". This is due not only to its volume, but also to the richness and abundance of content, detailed descriptions, thematic breadth, which was created by the intellectual elite of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The entries of the encyclopedia are elaborate articles often cited by subsequent generations to this day. Careful printing, modern techniques (chromolithographs with a rich color palette). The texts were prepared by A. Brückner, P. Chmielowski, T. Korzon, S. Askenazy, K. Estreicher, L. Krzywicki, W. Nałkowski, Wł. Tatarkiewicz, among others. Missing from the set are the notebooks of volume 55 published in series III from the P entry to the Patroklos entry. Condition mostly good. Some volumes loose which is due to the weight of the blocks. Some of the bindings bear traces of insects. T. 3-4 pencil marks, small losses due to gluing of boards; T. 5-6 pencil and crayon marks, small losses due to gluing of pages; T. 7-8 pencil marks; T. 11-12 on p. 519 small printing defect 2 cm missing text, insect marks on face of spine; T. 13-14 block loose; T. 15-16 on p. 403 torn card; T. 23-24 pp. 17 loose; T. 25-26 traces of insects; T. 29-30 torn title card; T. 31-32 block loose, plate after p. 384 torn; T. 35-36 supplemented with 16-page contribution in copy, one booklet not delivered to subscriber; T. 39-40 crayon marks, 1 cm loss to spine; T. 43-44 pp. 553-560 rearranged after p. 568; T. 45-46 initial pages creased; In Series II T. 3-4 s. 253 card edges missing, text loss.