YOUNG, Robert M. & PIKE, W.T. Ed. by. Belfast and the Province of Ulster in the 20th Century. By Robert Young. Contemporary Biographies. Edited by W.T. Pike. With two coloured tissue-guarded plates (The Giant’s Causeway and Belfast Harbour), a coloured map of Ulster and numerous portraits.

Brighton: Pike, 1909. Quarto. pp. 640. Contemporary quarter goatskin on blind-stamped cream linen boards with frame, shamrocks, and the coats of arms woven in blind to both front and back (Ulster coat of arms to front; Belfast coat of arms to lower). Spine divided into six panels by five gilt raised bands, title in gilt direct in the second, the remainder tooled in gilt to a centre-and-corner design with a gilt Shamrock onlay in green morocco in the centre of each panel; gold and brown marbled endpapers; red and gold endbands; burgundy silk marker. Armorial bookplate of John Milne Barbour on front pastedown. All edges gilt. Minor spotting to linen covers. A near fine copy. Very rare.

There are upwards of 900 biographies of distinguished Ultonians from all walks of life: Nobility & Gentry, Magistrates, Clergy, the Bench & the Bar, Legal, Medical, Scholastic, Literary & Musical, Land Agents & Auctioneers, Engineers, Architects and Accountants. With a medallion portrait of each.
The Irish linen for this excellent tome was specially woven with the Ulster crest and four shamrocks on the upper cover and the Belfast crest and four shamrocks on the lower cover.
Provenance: From the library of Sir John Milne Barbour, 1st Baronet PC (NI) JP, DL, usually known as Sir Milne Barbour (1868-1951) Northern Irish politician and baronet.

[Cat 160]