Frank Leslie Illustrated Newspapers (5 Volumes)

Description

The 5 Leslie volumes are from January 15, 1861 to December 30, 1865. They contain 263 of the ORIGINAL 269 issues (plus 6 war supplements). Issues 284 (1861), 370 (1862), 403 (1863), 460, 466, 471 (1864) were never bound by the family who owned these issues during the Civil War. These individual folio size issues (11.5" x 16.5"), are very clean and fresh. The more than 1,000 full and double page engravings are in excellent condition. Leslie had 72 engravers and numerous artists in battle. Leslie described the engravings as "unequal works of art and faithful representation of the great Civil War events." Undamaged Leslie Civil War issues are very rare and highly prized and sought. We have no idea how anyone can duplicate this 5 year run or even obtain full size volumes of a Civil War year. Rarely are single undamaged issues for sale. In addition to the numerous battle scenes, there are engravings of the Lincoln assassination, Lincoln’s funeral bed and the killing of Booth and the hanging of conspirators. Our binder used the original boards and changed the spines. As a result, the volumes are very sturdy resulting in easy reading (without fear of damage) by laying the opened volumes on a table. Finally, it is not cumbersome looking at the issues in bound volumes rather than paging through single issues.