![[ADDISON, JOSEPH and STEELE, RICHARD] The Spectator.](/sites/default/files/styles/auction_slider/public/images/lots/928/1479928.jpg?itok=R-exMtHR)
Lot Details
Lot 122
[ADDISON, JOSEPH & STEELE, RICHARD] The Spectator.
London: Sam. Buckley, 1 March 1711- 6 December 1712. Original folio issues, numbers 1-555 bound in one with a general titled page "A Compleat Sett of the Spectators. By Richard Steele" dated 1713. Full mottled calf gilt by Roger de Coverley but apparently unsigned, cloth slipcase. 12 x 7 1/4 inches (30 x 19 cm); [2], nos. 1-555 (with no 155 but two numbered 165). The binding joints and hinges cracked with the covers holding by cords, the spine dried and with losses, a few numbers trimmed close with some loss of issue number, several with revenue stamps to margins (after August 1712), generally clean but with some toning, light spotting and stray stains, the Austin Dobson/E. Hubert Litchfield copy with their bookplates.
The Spectator was begun by Addison and Steele following the conclusion of The Tatler in early 1712. With the Tories in control of Pariliament, at this time Addison found himself a Whig out of office, and time was taken to plan The Spectator which was ambitiously issued three times per week. Complete runs of each of the 555 numbers are rare. This is a distinguished copy previously owned by, and likely bound for, the library of the English writer Austin Dobson who wrote a biography of Richard Steele in 1886. Acquired by Quaritch, the volume bears their description, and was later owned by Edward Hubert Litchfield and was sold in his sale at Parke-Bernet, 3-4 December 1951, lot 4. Grolier English 40; Rothschild 3; ESTC P1724.
C The Julius and Theodore Cohn Library
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