Six-volume book set: Kirby's Wonderful and Eccentric Museum; or, Magazine of remarkable characters: including all the curiosities of nature and art, from the remotest period to the present time, drawn from every authentic source. First edition. London: R. S. Kirby, 1820. Six hardcover volumes bound in half morocco leather, 5.75 x 9, illustrated with over 100 engravings. The strange and delightful books discuss a wide range of curiosities, primarily eccentric personalities, but also covering extraordinary animals, ballooning, bizarre punishments, boiling fountains, child prodigies, cross-dressers, dwarfs, extraordinary burials, conjuring, eccentrics, foxes, ghosts, giants, gypsies, hermits, long-livers, mermaids, misers, mimics, odd crimes, prodigies, pygmies, self-crucifixion, seducers, strange murders, vegetable visages, ventriloquism, visions, witches, and so forth. In overall good to very good condition, with sunned spines and extremities, a few crude tape repairs to bindings, front board of Vol. IV detached but present, and general edgewear and rubbing; interior pages are very good to fine.
