Life and Times Of Sir Joshua Reynolds 1865. This is a two-volume set about the life of Sir Joshua Reynolds titled “Life And Times Of Sir Joshua Reynolds: With Notices Of Some Of His Contemporaries” by Charles Robert Leslie, R.A., continued and concluded by Tom Taylor, M.A., in two volumes, with Portraits and Illustrations, and the books were published in London by John Murray in 1865. The two books are in a fine binding by Worsfold, and it is a first edition set, according to WorldCat. The books have five raised bands, six compartments with gilt titles on red labels and elaborate gilt tooling on the spines, and “1865” in gilt at the bottom of the spines. The tan boards have triple gilt-fillet borders with gilt devices in the corners, gilt rules with scalloped gilt borders on marbled endpapers and “Bound by Worsfold” on the gilt-ruled border at the bottom of the front paste-downs, an oval frontis portrait of Joshua Reynolds in Volume I and a squared portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds by Francis Hall for the frontispiece in Volume II, a seven-page Preface and three pages of family history in Volume I, followed by four pages of Contents and a list of Illustrations at the bottom of the last Contents page, then Errata on page xvi, 479 pages of text, and an Index that runs to page 532, and Volume II has four pages of Contents with a list of Illustrations on the bottom of the last Contents page, then an Errata page, 644 pages of text, and a two-page Appendix at the rear. Joshua Reynolds (1723 - 1792) was an English painter who specialized in portraits, and was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting, which depended on idealizing the imperfect. He was a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts and was knighted by George III in 1769. The books are 8vo. and measure 8 7/8 x 6 in. wide and in wonderful condition. The bindings are tight and the pages and text are very clean, except for brown spots on the last page of the Index and the endpapers in both volumes, and the frontispiece of Joshua Reynolds in the second volume. The spine and gilt decorations are bright, and there’s just a hint of rubbing on the edges of the underside of the boards on the first volume, and that’s really it for blemishes or apologies, and a very attractive first edition set in a fine binding by Worsfold. Worsfold’s bindings usually command higher prices. #212 #1550