[Rarebooks] fa: OLDMIXON - HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND THE STUARTS - 1730 (the Stowe House copy)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other 17th-19th Century British books and  
pamphlets, auctions ending Sunday, May 2. Details and images can be  
found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://shop.ebay.com/arch_in_la/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340
OR
http://tinyurl.com/yhk74ma

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A., CA USA


[John Oldmixon:] The History of England, During the Reigns of the  
Royal House of Stuart. Wherein the Errors of Late Histories are  
Discover’d and Corrected; With Proper Reflections, And several  
Original Letters from King Charles II. King James II. Oliver Cromwell,  
&c. As also the Lord Saville’s Famous Forg’d Letter of Invitation,  
which brought the Scots into England in the Year 1640, And gave  
Occasion to the Beginning of the Civil Wars. This Letter being never  
before publish’d, led the Earl of Clarendon, Bishop Burnet, Mr.  
Echard, Dr. Welwood, and other Writers, into Egregious Mistakes upon  
this Head. To all which is Prefix’d, Some Account of the Liberties  
taken with Clarendon’s History before it came to the Press, such  
Liberties as make it Doubtful, What Part of it is Clarendon’s, and  
what Not. The whole Collected from the most Authentick Memoirs,  
Manuscript and Printed. By the author of the Critical History of  
England. London: Printed for John Pemberton, in Fleetstreet; Richard  
Ford, Richard Hett, and John Gray, in the Poultry; and Thomas Cox,  
under the Royal-Exchange, MDCCXXX [1730]. FIRST EDITION. Tall folio  
(36 x 23.5 cm; 14 x 9.5 in) in early/period paneled calf...

A "violent party history, written in opposition to the Stuart  
family" (Lowndes). John Oldmixon (1673-1742) was an uncompromising old  
Whig, famous for the bitterness and longevity of his quarrels with  
political foes such as Samuel Johnson, who described him as "lowest of  
all human begins, a scribbler for a party," and Alexander Pope, who  
immortalized him in his Dunciad. Surprisingly, Johnson's name appears  
in the list of subscribers.
 From the legendary library at Stowe House, Buckinghamshire, with a  
19th-century ink notation on the front paste-down, "Bought at the  
Stowe Sale," and a signature, "George Bridges Esq." The catalogue of  
the 1849 sale of the library, conducted by Sotheby's and lasting 24  
days, does indeed list Oldmixon's History among the books offered.  
Early ink shelving label at foot of the spine. Front and rear hinges/ 
joints cracked but both boards secured by the cords; wear, bumping and  
scuffing to the boards; spine darkened and dried, worn at the ends,  
spine label lost; some light damp-staining to the fore-edges of the  
first 5 leaves; occasional light dust-soiling to the edges of the text  
block; otherwise exceedingly clean, bright and fresh. A superior copy  
with a proud provenance.