Ten Thousand A-Year - Samuel Warren 1889 - Little, Boston - Number 69 of a limited 200 copies A fine and finely bound three volume set, the upper covers blocked in gilt with the crest, coat of arms and motto of ‘Tittlebat Titmouse Esq M.P. according to the description of Sir Gorgeous Tintack, Garter King at Arms.’ Volume I with sepia toned portrait frontispiece on vellum.

Samuel Warren (1807-77) was an English barrister, Member of Parliament for Midhurst, and author of a number of books both fiction and non-fiction.

Ten Thousand A-Year’ is his second novel, one of the most popular of the era and some consider the first to feature a lawyer as the main character. It concerns a firm of attorneys who discover that Tittlebat Titmouse, a poor draper's clerk, may have a claim to the large estate of Yatton. The attorneys commence an action which results in Titmouse displacing the unbelievably pious John Aubrey as the owner of the estate, and its annual income of £10,000. Titmouse revels in his new found wealth, until a new round of litigation is commenced which returns Aubrey to his place as squire of Yatton. Titmouse is disgraced, and ends his life in a lunatic asylum.

The narrator repeatedly tells the reader that the English legal system is close to perfection, but the actual workings of the law in ‘
Ten Thousand a-Year’ paint a more negative picture. Dickens seems to have read Warren's fiction and non-fiction, and to have borrowed images and ideas." [ODNB].

In addition to Warren’s knowledge of the law, he was well versed on asylum and the welfare of the mentally ill, occupying the position of ‘Master in Lunacy’ [1859-77].
  Provenance: James David, with his bookplate to each volume, lettered and decorated in blue and red.

Three octavo volumes (binding size 22.8x16.5cm), pp. [4] xii 514 [6]; [4] vi 492 [4]; [4] vi 544 [4].
  Elegantly bound in three-quarter burgundy levant morocco over matching cloth, spines decorated in gilt in six compartments, two lettered in gilt, four with double fillet borders enclosing delicate leaf and vine corner motifs, upper cloth covers with central gilt supralibros of Tittlebat Titmouse Esq. with the motto Je Le Tiens , top edges gilt others uncut, marbled endpapers.   Condition: Fine in fine bindings   Ref: 110368   Price: HK$ 5,200