Vintage Sheet Music, in bound parts (Violin I and II, Viola, and Cello) each in its own volume in hard covers, (each volume consisting of Quartets 1 - 40 by Joseph Haydn). Dark brown-red boards with gilt titling. Large format. Edited by Friedrich Hermann. Published by A.H. Payne, Leipzig, Dresden, Wien, Berlin, and Altona, in the 1860s. The Violino I volume has as a frontispiece the engraved portrait of a young Haydn.

Dimensions of each volume are: 36cm tall, 29cm wide. Music sheets are 36cm x 28cm. 

For each part, the Volume externals are in fair condition, showing their age in general soiling and in wear on edges and corners and general rubbing. Each volume is slightly bowed. The binding on the Violino Primo volume is in fair-good condition. It is not quite intact but is not giving up on its job. It has been extensively reinforced externally with scotch tape but not too effectively or aesthetically. Within this volume there are a few small gaps between text blocks. There are no loose pages or blocks.  

The other parts volumes are in much stronger shape. The Violino II and Viola volumes have neat tape reinforcements at the spine but binding seems firmly intact. The Cello part has no tape and seems intact also. It has a piece of binding missing at base of spine. 

The title page of each volume bears the inked signature of August Herber, and the date 1894; these signatures have been overstamped by a later owner, S. Bisscheim, of Edgeware, Middlesex, and the same pages also bear another stamp, for Simon Bisscheim, of Frankfurt a.M. [Behind these names may be a story of a very musical Jewish refugee family finding a new home and life in London. Whatever the history, it seems that the earlier generation's music was carefully preserved in the family]. [N.B. There is a separate listing for a set of 4 string quartet parts for a collection of 7 string quartets, one volume per part, with the same signatures and stamps.]

In the Violino I volume there are some markings on the Contents page, and a few here and there, mostly on later quartets, and mostly at the top margins and corners. No markings seen on staves in any volume. Some brown spots on pages here and there in each volume. 

Total weight of the four volumes, before packaging, is 6.6 kilos. 

Please note that there is a listing for the accompanying four volumes of the remaining Haydn quartets, numbers 41-83.