Commentaries on the Laws of England. 12th. ed. 4 Volumes

1793. Eller 21, Laeuchli 26; London, 1793-1795 12th ed. Eller 21, Laeuchli 26; London, 1793-1795 12th ed. First Edition of Blackstone by Christian, Enhanced With Portraits of Important English Jurists Blackstone, Sir William [1723-1780]. Christian, Edward [1758-1823], Editor. Commentaries on the Laws of England, In Four Books. With the Last Corrections of the Author; And With Notes and Additions by Edward Christian. London: Printed by A. Strahan and W. Woodfall, 1793-1795. Four volumes. Copperplate portrait frontispieces of Blackstone (Volume I), Littleton (II), Mansfield (III) and Hale (Volume IV), 8 (of 9) portrait engraved copperplates of important English jurists interspersed throughout, engraved copperplate "Table of Consanguinity" and folding "Table of Descents" (Vol. II). Lacking portrait of Lord Somers in Vol. I. Text complete. Octavo (8-1/2" x 5"; 21.5 x 13 cm). Contemporary calf, blind fillets to boards, raised bands and lettering pieces to spines. Some rubbing to exteriors, front & rear board of Vol. I and rear board of Vol. II detached, front boards of Vols. II-IV starting to separate, spine ends and corners bumped and worn, early owner signatures to preliminaries. Moderate toning to interior, light foxing in a few places, faint offsetting from copperplates to facing leaves, light edgewear to folding table, portrait of Fortescue in Vol. I detached and lightly edgeworn, brief ink corrections (reflecting errata) to a few pages. A good set. $500. * Twelfth edition, the first edition with Christian's notes, which became a standard feature, in whole or as excerpts, of several nineteenth-century editions (including an 1822-1823 French translation). Blackstone's paging retained in margins. His notes are printed as footnotes, separated from Blackstone's with rules. This edition was published in numbers, each with a portrait of a judge. The jurists depicted in the plates in the text are Somers, Fortescue, Coke, Holt, Gilbert, Comyns, Hardwick, Foster and Raymond. Like Blackstone, Christian taught law to college undergraduates. Unlike Blackstone, Christian was a successful barrister (and the brother of Fletcher Christian, leader of the HMS Bounty mutineers). William Wordsworth, one of his notable clients, said he was a "very, very clever man." Hoffheimer, "Christian, Edward," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (accessed online). Eller, The William Blackstone Collection in the Yale Law Library.