Financing an Empire: History of Banking in California [Four Vols.; Deluxe Edition]

Chicago / San Francisco / Los Angeles: The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co, 1927. Very Good. Chicago / San Francisco / Los Angeles: The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1927. Four quarto volumes (27cm); xii,7-526pp; [ii],527-1002pp; 531pp; 448pp. Illus. throughout. Deluxe Edition in publisher's embossed brown boards; decoratively mottled endpapers; gilt top edges. Boards all a bit shelfworn along bottom edges, with scattered light scuffs to surface and occasional dulling to bronze decorations to fronts and spines. Some toning and foxing along edges of frontispiece, not touching portrait, with some generally-faint offsetting to and through tissue guard to title page and a number of plates throughout; all volumes with a bit of toning to pages along top- and fore-edges. Bindings are sound and pages unmarked.

Impressive history of banking and finance in California. The author writes in his preface that "A sincere attempt has been made to present the history of every bank established in the state from the days of the gold rush to the close of 1926"; also included are biographies of both historical and then-active bankers in the profession. The Financing an Empire series also published sets for Illinois (1926) and Pennsylvania (1928).