IN BOARDS
The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets; with Critical Observations on their Works.
London: Printed for C. Bathurst, J. Buckland, W. Strahan, J. Rivington and Sons, T. Davies, T. Payne, L. Davis, W. Owen, B. White, S. Crowder, T. Caslon, T. Longman, B. Law, C. Dilly, J. Dodsley, J. Wilkie, J. Robson, J. Johnson, T. Lowndes, G. Robinson, T. Cadell, J. Nichols, E. Newbery, T. Evans, P. Elmsly, J. Ridley, R. Baldwin, G. Nicol, Leigh and Sotheby, J. Bew, N. Conant, W. Nicoll, J. Murray, S. Hayes, W. Fox, and J. Bowen, 1781.
Price: $3,000.00
About the item
Second London edition, and first authorized separate edition. Vol. 1: Frontis. portrait, extra engraved vignette of SJ to tissue guard, vii, (1), 480; vol. 2: iii, (1), 471; vol. 3: iii, (1), 462; vol. 4: iii, (1), 505 pp. 4 vols. 8vo. Original blue-gray boards (8.75 x 5.25 inches), uncut. Engraved frontispiece portrait by T. Trotter after J. Reynolds, without imprint, additional engraved portrait cut and mounted onto tissue guard, uncut. Backstrips parished, but the volumes are solid. Frontispiece spotted occasionally and some light staining or dampstaining; housed in two cloth chemises and slipcases. Vol. 3 leaf Q1 torn. Courtney, 141-42; Fleeman 79.4LP/5. Provenance: [William, 4th Earl?] Fitzwilliam, with the Fitzwilliam's arms on the bookplate in 3 of the volumes; then from the estate of Huguette Clark.
Item #266706
The first authorized separate edition of Johnson’s Lives of the English Poets — they first appeared as the “Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the English Poets,”(10 vols, 1779-1781). A contemporary and uniform set of Johnson's masterwork of critical literary observations, all volumes uncut, in the original boards. The arms on the bookplate suggest that the previous owner who has signed and dated each title page “Fitzwilliam / 1781” is William, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam (1748-1833). A subsequent owner has attempted to rub out the Fitzwilliam name and the crown on the bookplates.
