Marbled page from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman First edition.

Marbled page from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman First edition. Volume 3. Publisher Hogarth; Ravenet; Dodsley, R.; Wood, H.; Monkman, Kenneth; Apencer, Walter T.

This volume is fully bound in (fawn) leather with gilt edges to the text block.The front and rear end pages are made from sheets of marbled paper (French Curl on Nonpareil pattern). On the front paste-down there are 2 labels; top left is "From the Library of Kenneth Monkman at Shandy Hall" with underneath "Property of the Laurence Sterne Trust, 1986". On the reverse of the front free end-page is "KM 9" in pencil and on the reverse of the title page is a circular stamp with "Laurence sterne Trust Shandy Hall" with "The Kenneth Monkman Collection" inside. The spine has 5 raised bands, the title piece is in the second panel down in gilt capitols on an ox-blood background "Sterne's Tristram Shandy" and the volume number is in the third panel down in gilt on a brown background "III" both are surrounded by gilt borders and there is foliate decoration in the other panels formed by the spines raised bands. The board faces are decorated by a border of 2 impressed gilt lines with a small flower at each corner, the board edges are decorated with horizontal lines and the area of leather folded over into the paste-down has further gilt decoration which has off-set and stained the adjacent areas of marbled end-page.