Smoking and Smokers; Also, Snuff and Snuff-Takers. With Numerous Wood Cuts

London: Joseph Baker, 1851. First Edition. Blindstamped decorated cloth. Very Good. Essentially two books, closely related in topic and tone, in one. 90 and 90 pp. 8to, 8 by 4.5 inches, 20 by 12 cm. With numerous often droll woodcut illustrations of smokers in their various attitudes and conceits. The work(s) treat seemingly all aspects of their subject, including history, statistical data regarding, and then countless other looser associative matters of which the very act of smoking invites, for smoking, and now the mostly bygone practice of taking snuff, so much more to their acolytes than the simple consumption of the stuff. Thus there are chapters on reveries concerning tobacco, of the pipe as a means of public instruction, on maxims regarding, on tobacco and the classics, and on and on. Without question these droll studies were written largely for the delectation of smokers and snuff-takers! The ranginess and sly wit of the author, together with his sometimes ardent arguments in favor of the products, make this one of those rare cultural and literary artefacts that can entertain the modern reader as the author intended yet also with the ironic detachment of our hindsight. Green blindstamped boards decorated with gilt. Rubbing along gutters. A light dampstain affects the margins of many pages yet more or less blends in with the moderate age toning of the leaves. Some starting of the rear hinge.