Lot Details
Lot 163
JOHNSON, SAMUEL The Lives of the most eminent English poets; with Critical Observations on their Works.
London: C. Bathurst, J. Buckland, W. Strahan, J. Rivington and Sons, T. Davies [etc.], 1781. Four volumes. First edition. Contemporary tree calf with red lettering labels. 8 3/8 x 5 inches (21 x 13 cm); frontispiece portrait, vii, 480 pp., ad leaf headed [505]; iii, 471 pp.; iii, 462 pp.; iii, 503 pp. Loss to lettering label on volume I, the bindings rubbed and the joints starting, spotting and stray stains within, a contemporary signature from Oxford partially removed from two title pages with stain, neat ink signatures of Elizabeth Mary Hall dated 1798 to blanks, the John Drinkwater/Barton Currie set with booklabels to each volume and Drinkwater's signatures dated 1920 on blanks.
A distinguished set of Johnson's classic work on the English poets. This copy sold in The Library of the Late Barton Currie of Philadelphia, 7 & 8 May, 1963, lot 259. The catalogue note: "First English book edition. Attractively bound at or shortly after the time of publication: an owner's name (at Magdalen College, Oxford) with the date 1788 has been partially obliterated from the title-page of vol. i. Another owner's inscription is dated 1798. John Drinkwater's copy, with his bookplate and a note in his hand.The set agrees with Chapman-Hazen: the advertising leaf from vol. iv is here bound into vol. i; the leaf of labels in vol. iv is not present; the frontis. portrait in vol. i is without the publishers' imprint."
C The Collection of Jay I. Kislak sold to benefit the Kislak Family Foundation
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