In 1768, James Cook set sail in his trusty Endeavour and legendary warrior Te Rauparaha of Ngati Toa was born. Incredibly, it was also the year that the world’s first three-volume Encyclopædia Britannica was published.

An exact replica of this luscious set is about to be released, complete with ‘natural marks of age and watermarks on the pages’. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica web site, the facsimile edition even has a ‘Duplicate of the original binding, down to the cherished imperfections.’

Sounds like you could almost pass off this set as an original first edition. The RRP of US$195 (NZ$310) is good value, but Amazon has an extraordinary pre-order deal that comes in even lower, at just NZ$230 including postage to New Zealand.

Now that's a bargain if we ever saw one.