TONE, William Theobald Wolfe. Ed. by. Memoirs of Theobald Wolfe Tone. Written by himself [EARL OF ROSEBERY’S COPY]

Comprising a complete journal of his negotiations to procure the aid of the French for the Liberation of Ireland. With selections from his diary whilst agent to the Irish Catholics. Edited by his son, William Theobald Wolfe Tone. Portrait frontispiece. Two volumes. London: Henry Colburn, 1827. pp. (1) xvi, 422, (2) ii, 453. Bound by Roger de Coverly in half crushed levant morocco over marbled boards (name stamped on verso of front endpapers). Spine divided into six panels by five raised bands, author and title in gilt direct in the second and third; comb-marbled endpapers; red and gold endbands. Armorial bookplate of the Earl of Rosebery on pastedowns, neat blind stamp exlibris of the Earl on titlepages. R.I. Best's later ownership inscription and signature. Top edge gilt. A very nice set with fine associations. Scarce.
Theobald Wolfe Tone, Founder of the United Irish Society and Adjutant General and Chef de Brigade in the Service of the French and Batavian Republics. Written by himself and continued by his son ... His mission to France ... Complete diary of his Negotiations to procure the aid of the French and Batavian Republics, for the Liberation of Ireland; of the Expedition to Bantry Bay. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when The Durdans was a seat of Lord Rosebery, he entertained, in his position as prime minister, political colleagues such as William Gladstone, as well as members of the royal family, including Queen Alexandra, King George V, Queen Mary, and Princess Mary.

Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, (1799-1869), known before 1834 as Edward Stanley, and from 1834 to 1851 as Lord Stanley was a British statesman, three-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and, to date, the longest-serving leader of the Conservative Party. He was scion of one of Britain's oldest, wealthiest and most powerful families. He is one of only four British prime ministers to have three or more separate periods in office. Derby introduced the state education system in Ireland, and reformed Parliament. Scholars long ignored his role but in the 21st century rank him highly among all British prime ministers.
Roger de Coverly (1831-1914), was one of the most accomplished binders in England during the latter part of the 19th century. He was apprenticed to Joseph Zaehnsdorf, Snr., in 1845, worked for John & James Leighton from ca. 1852-63, then established his own bindery. His first great customer was Basil Montagu Pickering of Piccadilly, the only one of the London booksellers that supported his shop in his early years of trading. In the 1880s, his bindings were in great demand, as were his services as a teacher. He undertook a good deal of work for William Morris, and he counted among his illustrious students the younger Charles McLeish as well as one of the greatest of all English bookbinders, T. J. Cobden-Sanderson, who served an apprenticeship with him in 1883-84. De Coverly worked mostly in the classical style, and the quality of workmanship he and his two sons demonstrated was consistently of the highest level.