Mid-Georgian London

London: Collins, 1964. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Fine Jacket. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. 321 pp. Profusely illustrated social and cultural history and appreciation of Hogarthian London. Delightful work captures the hustle and bustle of city during the heyday of the Kit Kat Club, Alexander Pope, George Handel, Chippendale, etc. Here find magnificent trade cards for long forgotten trades, a society both impossibly decorous by our standards yet also impossibly crude or vulgar by our lights. Recounted are such obscure events as the Earthquake of London, notorious executions, spectacular masques, etc. Phillips brings an academic rigor to his subject yet never fails to entertain or make the lively canvas as vivid as a Fielding or Richardson novel, to which this history should be an indispensable supplement. This copy would be fine on all points but for some light fox marks on the rear side foreedge which is why I describe it as near fine. DJ is fine, and now protected with mylar. Illustrations include some in color. (Inventory #: 001130)