Titles starting with E from Stuart Bennett Rare Books

London: William Darton and Son, [1830-1836]. 24pp., 12mo. Twelve hand-colored engraved plates, each with two vignettes, many dated “1st mo. 2nd 1824”; last text leaf torn across and a shorter tear to the first text leaf, both neatly repaired without loss, a few spots and stains. Original printed wrappers; soiled, rebacked: a well-used but sound copy. Fourth edition, not so stated, reusing the plates from the first edition of 1824. This may be, as Marjorie Moon points out, a book where ... more information

London: Sold by Dodsley, in Pall-mall, 1778. xiv, 240pp., 12mo. Engraved frontispiece by Major after Cypriani; a few stains. Original calf, bound for Hanway by his second binder (see below), the monogram “I.H.S.” within a diamond on the front cover and a winged hourglass on the lower, gilt floral cornerpieces, and the spine gilt with an all-over chequered pattern and red morocco label; rubbed with the gilt somewhat faded in places, one small abrasion on upper cover. Contemporary ownership in... more information

London: Printed for S. Tipper, 1808. [xvi], 140, [4]pp., sm. 8vo. Folding hand-colored engraved frontispiece by J.A. Atkinson, with the terminal publisher’s catalogue; occasional minor soiling. Bound with Charles Cotton’s Scarronides, Whitehaven: J. Dunn, 1776, 144pp., in early nineteenth-century half calf, spine label missing. First edition of an amusing series of poems, occasionally attribted to George Colman. The frontispiece illustrates the scene in “Tom Shuttle and Blousalinda... more information

London: Printed for A. Millar, 1756. vii, [i], 96pp., 4to. Title and last leaf somewhat soiled, a few minor spots and stains, but a large copy, neatly bound in early twentieth-century cloth-backed boards, spine gilt-lettered. First separate edition of Richard Baron’s version; the same type-setting, differently paginated, was also used in Baron’s edition of Milton’s Prose Works dated 1753. Baron’s editorial labors and the printing of his text were both underwritten by Thomas Hollis,... more information

London: N.H. Cotes; Edinburgh: Fraser & Co.; Dublin: William Curry, Jun., & Co.; Glasgow: W.R. M'Phun, 1837. [iv], [9]-110pp., 8vo. Bound with three other plays (George Condy. Camillus: A Historical Play in Five Acts. London: Longman and Company, 1837. [iv], 51, [1]pp.; James Sheridan Knowles. The Daughter. A Play in Five Acts. London: Edward Moxon. Second Edition. 1837. [viii], 108pp.; and Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, afterwards Lord Lytton. Richelieu; or The Conspiracy: A Play in Five Acts. ... more information

London: Printed for F. and C. Rivington. . . and J. Hatchard, 1798. 15, [1]pp., 4to. An excellent copy in modern drab boards. First and only edition, echoing Thomas Gray in its opening - “The hollow knell resounds from yonder tower” - and heaping praise upon the “ardent patriot,” “guardian sage,” and “firmest pillar of the tottering state.” According to O'Donoghue, Poets of Ireland, p. 134, Eustace was born in Ireland around 1762 “and, it would appear, ... more information

London: Published by Thomas Tegg, [1810]. 144pp., 12mo. Engraved frontispiece, additional title with vignette, and two plates by Armstrong after Thurston. Fine in contemporary half calf, spine gilt. “Tegg’s Edition, Edited by Miss Burney,” so stated on the printed title; the engraved title supplies the publication date. Sophie Cottin’s novel was first published in Paris in 1806 and almost immediately translated into English, with rival versions by Mary Meeke and, it seems, Fanny B... more information

[Greenwich, Mass.: John Howe, 1803]. 12pp., 12mo. Drop-head title. A fine copy, stitched as issued, untrimmed and unopened. First and only edition, a melancholy little book by an otherwise unknown author, with three poems on the deaths of children from one family: an eighteen year-old struck down by “The Putred fever,” a baby killed by “Meazles,” and “blooming” Daniel, aged nine, cause not specified. A final poem, “An Address to Christian Parents in affliction,”... more information

Wellington, Salop: Printed by and for Houlston and Son, 1829. 150, 36pp., 18mo. Woodcut frontispiece and title-vignette, with a 36-page publisher’s catalogue at end, the first six of which are devoted to works by Mrs. Sherwood. Original red roan-backed marbled boards, spine gilt with price “2/-”; spine head very slightly chipped, but a very nice copy. First edition, what her biographer Nancy Cutt calls one of the author’s “less happy” novels for children. It is full of &... more information

London: Printed for Dan. Brown at the Black Swan and Bible without Temple-bar, and G. Strahan, 1700. 133, [3]pp., 8vo. Small paper flaw before printing at pp. 85-86, affecting a word either side, the sense clear; some browning throughout, but a sound copy in nineteenth-century half calf, spine gilt; a bit rubbed. First edition, one of two books by this author, both of them on painting and both, as ODNB puts it, arguing “painting's status as a liberal art,” capable of refining natural beau... more information

Edinburgh: Printed by John Moir, 1810. 7, [1]pp., 8vo. Small blank corner chewed from the upper inner corner, well clear of text. Disbound. First and only edition, the result of a fierce literary battle between two distinguished Edinburgh physicians. James Gregory was notorious for his public feuds. His sorties were usually sarcastic and very personal and, as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography puts it, “although considered by many to be a waste of his talents they were often a source o... more information

London: Printed for Benj. Tooke. . . and Bernard Lintott, 1711 . [iv], 19, [1]pp., 8vo. With the half-title, two significant manuscript alterations in text; some browning throughout, but a sound copy, disbound. First edition of this fine literary poem, addressed to a playwright, and considering in some detail the drama of the preceding century. Shakespeare is praised, but condemned: he “stoop’d too low to please a barb’rous Age.”  Johnson, the Tribute of my Verse m... more information

London: Printed for A. Millar in the Strand, A. Kincaid and J. Bell, in Edinburgh, 1759. [ii], iv, 222, [2], [223]-253, [1], [257]-314pp., 8vo. Marginal tear to the last leaf neatly repaired without loss of paper or text; the book was printed on poor paper and almost all copies, including this one, show variable browning and mild staining. Contemporary gilt-ruled calf; joints repaired. First edition of the author’s first substantial book, a landmark in aesthetic theory by the professor of moral p... more information

London: Printed for Richard Baldwin, at the Oxford Arms, 1697. [xxiv], 318pp., 8vo. Neatly bound in modern half vellum. First edition, all published, not surprisingly given the nature of the subject. Tiberius seems to get the most detail, with much on “lewd discoverers of unnatural and beastly postures and motions,” and on the emperor’s tendency towards debauching “young children yet in ignorance, calling them his little Fry.” Wing E3296A. ESTC records six copies (British Library, Christ C... more information