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FIRST LONDON AND FIRST IRISH EDITIONS, privately
printed, the author’s own copies, signed “Orrery”,
interleaved with 32 leaves paginated 1-64, including a four
and a half-page preface by Orrery discussing the two works
and their publication, 2 vols bound in one, 8vo, contemporary
red morocco, the boards with wide gilt borders of crowns and
stylized leaf tools, lettered in gilt “A Poem on. [sic] /
Edmund Duke. [sic] / of Buckingham. “, unlettered and fully
gilt spine in compartments, with bird-on-branch and other
small tools, in gilt, all edges gilt: just a trifle rubbed with the
joints slightly cracked, but the binding strong and otherwise
an exceptional survival, in fine condition.
Foxon B354 and 355. O’Donoghue, page 35, noting Brindley’s folio
only. The author’s 5-page introductory manuscript notes reads:
“The printed contents of this book are two different editions, one in
London, the other at Dublin, of the same poem. The first, which
was published at London, was printed by the direction of her Grace
the Dutchess of Buckingham, in the year 1736. The second, was
printed at Dublin from a copy I gave to Falkner at his repeated
request, in the year 1741. I cannot apprehend the reason why the
Duke of Buckingham’s name, in the first copy is not printed at full
length, but B——-, and again in page the 3d S——-d’s, and in page
the 7th S——d, since the whole poem is entirely in his honour: nulla
venenato litera mista joco [No venomous jest lies in what I have
written - Ovid]: especially as the Duke of Berwick’s name is inserted
without any abbreviation, and of the two it is certainly esteemed less
disloyal to praise the Duke of Buckingham than the Duke of
Berwick. As I could take no notice of this circumstance to the
Dutchess, who did me great honour, in thinking the poem worth
publishing at any rate, I imagine the whole conduct of the press was
left entirely to the bookseller who thought he could not be too
circumspect and wary upon the occasion. He considered with equal
gravity and wisdom that the verses were not only in praise of King
James the second’s grandson, but dedicated to that king’s daughter,
and to screen me from the Tower, this learned typographer has
secreted my name, and only distinguished me as a young nobleman;
a device which, amidst the innumerable writers of that class, must
inevitably save me from all danger: but to be serious, Falkner’s
edition is by much the most correct (for there is one in folio) of any
extant. “ The Earl of Orrery (1707-62) took his seat in the Lords in
November, 1735, where he began his political career as a Tory and a
Jacobite, and an associate of Bolingbroke, whence, as he suggests,
the printer’s overzealous prudence in suppressing his name. He is
now chiefly remembered for his close friendship, beginning in the
early 1730’s, with both Pope and Swift; his biography of Swift,
published in 1751, was popular, but at the same time elicited a great
deal of hostile criticism. Samuel Johnson rather liked Orrery, but
once described him as “feeble-minded, “ and said that “he grasped
at more than his abilities could reach. “ In recent years his
reputation has risen considerably, as can be clearly seen in the
strikingly different assessments of him in the DNB and the ODNB.
This 118-line poem, Orrery’s first publication, is an elegy for
Edmund Sheffield, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Normandy, who
died of consumption in Rome, in 1735, at the age of 19. The
differences between the versions printed in 1736 and 1741 are chiefly
matters of layout and punctuation, though there are also two
substantive alterations in lines 30 (“baneful” for “blasting”) and 48
(“vanquished” for “feeble”). Of the Duchess of Buckingham’s
private printing two copies are recorded, one at the British Library,
the only one listed in the ESTC, and the other at Cincinnati (cited
by Foxon). The British Library copy is, as here, bound with
Faulkner’s Dublin printing, of which the ESTC records five other
examples: L, D, O; NjP (also annotated) & PP. The volume was
acquired in 1982 at the Christie’s sale of the Gerald E. Slater
collection, where it formed part of a group of six similarly bound
titles originally sold in the dispersal at auction of the Cork and
Orrery library in 1905. It also has four and a half pages of Orrery’s
notes at the front, but the text is entirely different, concluding with a
touching assessment of the subject of the poem: “The Duke of
Buckingham was a young nobleman of great hopes; of an excellent
heart; a very good understanding; and a judgement uncommon at
his years... He came into the world, as it were, an old man. “ Orrery
commonly had more than one copy of his various poems specially
bound for his own use. This example is enhanced by a further
inscription on the front flyleaf: “Lucy Boyle, the gift of my
honoured father, May 1st, 1756. “ The elaborate morocco binding of
each copy has been described as the work of an unassigned Irish
binder; it is more probable that both are the work of James Brindley,
the London bookseller and publisher who printed the folio edition of
Orrery’s poem, which he mentions parenthetically in his note.
€3,000-€4,000 (£2,400-£3,200 approx.)
596
.
[BRADFORD (Wm.)].
The Gentleman’s and Trader’s
Guide. Containing, the description and use of an instrument for
preventing frauds by counterfeit gold, which gives the weight,
and shews the alloy of that metal, as well in coin as in rings, and
all kinds of utensils made thereof; with the quantity of
adulteration, (if any.) This instrument is neatly made in brass or
ivory, and very portable in the pocket. Made by John Lort,
(Only) mathematical instrument maker, in Park-street, near the
Coomb, Dublin. Where any person desirous may have an
instrument made to weigh and prove any larger piece of coin or
utensil of gold than this instrument is designed for.
Dublin:
Printed by Bart. Corcoran, on the Inns-Quay, circa
1770
FIRST IRISH EDITION, 8-pages, 12mo, original blue paper
wrappers: an excellent copy in original state with 5 neat
contemporary manuscript corrections, which, as they all are
price increases, are probably by Lort.
An unrecorded edition: not found in ESTC, Kress, Goldsmiths’,
COPAC, &c. ESTC has four editions: (1) The description and use …
[?London ?1754], (2) The gentleman’s …Worcester, 1754. (3)
Worcester, 1753, and, (4) Stratford, 1756 - locating 1 (Owo), 1 (Lu), 1
(O) & 3 (L, Lu & DSI, the latter imperfect), respectively
ALSO WITH THIS LOT: (1)
LOVE (Benjamin).
Manchester
as it is: or, notices of the institutions, manufactures, commerce,
railways, etc. of the metropolis of manufactures: interspersed
with much valuable information useful for the resident and
stranger.
Manchester: Printed and published by Love and Barton …,
1839. FIRST EDITION, with a double-page engraved plan, 11
engraved plates and an engraved trade plate, pp 244, (6), (10,
adverts) and Newton & Berry’s engraved trade plate, 12mo,
original cloth, gilt, with Love & Barton’s ticket on front
endpaper, inscribed “James Kilgour / Aberdeen 1839”: plates
lightly foxed, otherwise an attractive copy in original state.
(2)
BLAZE DE BURY (Marie P. R.), Baroness.
Racine, and
the French classical drama. [bound with:] Molière, and the
French classical drama. [and:] RAMSAY(Alexander) Samuel
Butler, and his Hudibras and other works.
Charles Knight
1845-
46-46. FIRST EDITIONS, with 10 full-page illustrs in the third
work, pages 264: 216: 240, 12mo, contemporary calf: binding
rubbed and worn but sound and strong, otherwise very good.
French journalist, travel writer and novelist (died 1894), said to have
been the illegitimate daughter of Lord Brougham.
(3)
LAUGHTON (James Brotherston).
Johnson’s historical,
topographical, & parochial guide, and visitor’s companion
through the Isle of Mann.
Douglas: Printed and published by
Samuel Johnson, Duke Street,
1847. With a folding engraved map
and 4 text woodcuts, pages (8), 200, 12mo, original mauve cloth,
gilt: little wear to spine but binding otherwise sound and strong
and a very good copy.
An uncommon early edition (?the first under this title) of a successful
guide book. Edition not stated, the 2-page preface dated from Douglas,
137