In this condition, this copy - from the private reference libvrary of the artist and illustrator Barnett Freedman, is a remarkable find. The book contains 112 wood engraved illustrations by Rious & Neuville and there were wood engraved illustrations throughout two other English editions of Verne in a Bloomsbury Auctions sale of June 17.
The 1896 copy of The Floating Island, bottom right, the pictorial cloth front cover slightly disfigured by a glass or cup mark, splitting at the lower joint and reinforced at the hinges, made £500. The Purchase of the North Pole of 1891, with many quires loose but holding and several plates completely detached, made £1300.
