First edition second state of leaf H4r in vol. I (line 16 reading "qui auroit"). Engraved frontispiece portrait of the Earl of Chesterfield in volume one.

4to., 2 volumes with half-titles. Contemporary full calf, spines sometime rebacked preserving original spines with contrasting leather labels. A little rubbing and slight scraping to bindings, a little nibbling to inner hinges, otherwise a very good set.

Chesterfield's famous letters written to his son, Phillip Stanhope, his illegitimate child by one Mlle. du Bouchet, in Flanders. These 395 letters were prepared for publication by his widow, Lady Chesterfield, within a year of his death. While it must be remembered that the letters were private and not intended for publication, the work attained immediate popularity, and it remains an essential literary and historical document of the eighteenth century. Rothschild 596; Lowndes II, 434.