[Rarebooks] fa: JOHN DRYDEN - MISCELLANEOUS WORKS 1760 - 4 vols. LORD ELDON'S COPY

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other 17th, 18th, & 19th-century titles, auctions ending Sunday, Sept. 30. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/9sduw2j

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.



The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, Esq; Containing all his Original Poems, Tales, and Translations. Now first Collected and Published together in Four Volumes. With Explanatory Notes and Observations. Also an Account of his Life and Writings. London: Printed for J. and R. Tonson, 1760. First edition thus. Four volumes, 8vo, in full period polished calf, ruled in gilt, with gilt-stamped morocco spine labels; vol I: xxxiv, [10], 387, lxxxviii p.; vol. II: [8], 480, lii p.; vol. III: [4], 494 p.; vol. IV: [4], 456 p. With the engraved frontispiece (often lacking) and a number of in-text engravings. ESTC T145665.

The first collected edition of Dryden's complete works. Hinges cracked or starting on all four volumes, with several boards secured only by the cords; vol. I with wear, chips and cracking to the spine, abrasions to the boards with loss of leather in a couple of spots; lesser wear to the other volumes; some offsetting and light spotting to the endpapers and preliminary leaves; very occasional light touches of soiling; otherwise contents are quite bright and fresh.

From the library at Encombe House, Dorset, the seat of John Scott, Lord Eldon (1751-1838); all four volumes with the signature of John Scott and a bookplate bearing the family's heraldic devices and motto (Sit sine labe decus: "Let honour be without stain"). Scott, later made Baron and then 1st Earl of Eldon, was successively Solicitor General, Attorney General, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and, ultimately, Lord Chancellor, holding that title, with only a year's break, for twenty-six years. An arch-Tory adherent of William Pitt, he was a close adviser to both George III and George IV.