Why it matters

Smith was Keeper of the Prints at the British Museum and etched the plates himself; the book appeared posthumously in 1839 under the editorship of John Bowyer Nichols, with a biographical memoir signed by Nichols. Its plates divide between 'antient' trades copied from early prints and modern traders drawn from life, and the volume was presented as a continuation of Smith's Vagabondiana.

Why we're looking

The object itself is attractive — a plate book of London street life in three-quarter calf — but on price this one does not stand out: comparable original 1839 copies are currently offered on AbeBooks from £300 (Whetman, Very Good half calf) through £388.82 (Jeffrey H. Marks, complete with portrait frontispiece and 30 plates) to £824.91 for a contemporary green morocco copy, all below the $1,250 ask. It is worth a look as a nicely bound example.

Watch out for

The 1839 title page calls for a memoir and portrait of the author, and the portrait frontispiece (engraved by W. Skelton after J. Jackson) is listed separately from the 30 plates by other dealers — this listing mentions only the 30 plates, so ask whether the frontispiece and half-title are present. Foxing is a recurring issue in this edition: several dealer descriptions of other 1839 copies note scattered foxing touching the plates, and one describes a copy as "much cleaner than is usually found," while this listing says only "very good" without detailing the plates. "First edition" here refers to the first publication of a posthumous work edited by Nichols rather than anything issued in Smith's lifetime.