Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission to China and Japan in the Years 1857 to 1859 by Laurence Oliphant in 2 volumes. This was published by Willaim Blackwood and Sons.
 
They have an early binding of three quarter calf leather with marbled boards and marbled edges to the text blocks. The spine has 5 raised bands with gilt decorations and a gilt title on black leather.
 
There is obvious wear to the boards, less so to the  spine. Volume 1 has a loss to the end-paper on  the front paste down presumably due to a previously removed name-plate(see photo). There is some foxing throughout in both books, most apparent on the preliminaries .
 
Volume 1 has 4 hand-coloured chromolithographs which are stunning and has foxing around the blank borders,numerous engravings on wood and two maps. The second map at the end of the book is shown in the photo above, it has an old small tape repair and a tear about 3cm long. Volume 2 has 15 hand-coloured chromolithographs , numerous engravings on wood and three maps.
 
Overall two complete, very good copies.