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Hard cover, 8 vo in tan decorated cloth blocked in red, gold and black with the image of the balcony of an Italian villa on the front board, with the titles set along parallel scrolls above and below the vignette. The spine has titles in gold, centered with a vignette design of a gold fruiting cornucopia. Top edge gilt, with the remaining edges more roughly trimmed. Cream end papers. 8 photographic illustrations in black and white. [i-x], frontis unpaginated, v-vi, 11-184pp.**CONDITION: Very Good. A few marks to the rear board, and the gold of titles lightly rubbed. End papers have a vintage Boston bookstore label near the bottom gutter of the ffep. Frontispiece illustration page has some sort of damp staining to outer corners, and two other of the eight plates also have minor stain to top margin edge; presumably a printing irregularity of these pages. Text is mildly age toned. No inscriptions.**These travel essays by the Boston Author Virginia Wales Johnson (1849-1916), based upon her experiences as a twenty year ex-pat residing in Florence, are largely descriptive of domestic arrangements, scenery and the experience of women--both as travelers and as those who work for them. It is a picturesque depiction of ways of life for well-to-do foreigners no longer, in the main, tolerated today. Some of the descriptions and colorful comment, however, remain timeless. In addition to other series and individual novels, Johnson wrote a handful of Italian-themed books, both of travel and fiction, based on her residence in Florence from 1875 onward.
Ref: ADV 9255
$75.00