[Rarebooks] THOMAS GRAY - THE POEMS 1775 - First Complete Ed. - LORD CAMDEN'S COPY

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, January 29. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/7cy66kw

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Thomas Gray: The Poems of Mr. Gray. To which are prefixed Memoirs of his Life and Writings by W. Mason, M.A.York: Printed by A. Ward; and Sold by J. Dodsley, Pall-Mall, London; and J. Todd, Stonegate, York, MDCCLXXV [1775]. First edition thus. Large 4to (26.5 cm) bound in full period calf with spine ornately tooled in gilt; [4], 416, [2], 111, [1]p.; complete with the half-title (bound in after the title-page), errata leaf (bound in after the Memoirs), and engraved portrait frontispiece. ESTC T107045; Nothup 13.

First complete collected edition of Gray's poems (including several never intended for publication) and the first to contain the "Life" by Mason. Handsome period binding shows scuffing to the boards, some wear/bumping to the corners; front exterior hinge is cracked but the board is secure; light foxing to the frontispiece and endpapers, a few occasional traces of toning or foxing to the text; otherwise contents are bright and fresh, firmly bound. An excellent copy of an elegantly printed book. Front paste-down with the engraved bookplate of Lord Camden (1714-1794), judge and radical Whig politician, and a leading proponent of civil liberties. He began the development of what was to become Camden Town in London.