[Rarebooks] fa: THE ENGLISH SPY 1825- CRUIKSHANK, ROWLANDSON etc. - Superb 1st Edition in Fine Morocco Bindings

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, April 21. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/dynn5rj

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Bernard Blackmantle [Charles Molloy Westmacott]: The English Spy: An Original Work, Characteristic, Satirical and Humorous. Comprising Scenes and Sketches in Every Rank of Society, Being Portraits of the Illustrious, Eminent, Eccentric, and Notorious. Drawn from the Life… London: Sherwood, Jones and Co., 1825-26. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. Two volumes, tall 8vo (24 cm), bound in full crimson levant morocco by Lloyd, Wallis & Lloyd (their name gilt-stamped in the border of the dentelles), covers ruled in gilt, elaborately gilt-tooled spines and dentelles, marbled endpapers, all page edges gilt; xxiii, [1], 417, [1] pp.; xv, [1], 399, [1] pp.; with 71 hand-colored aquatint plates with plate guards, 1 uncolored woodcut plate, numerous in-text woodcuts (complete). Abbey Life 325; Tooley 504.

A SPLENDID COPY OF ONE OF THE FINEST ENGLISH COLOR PLATE BOOKS: the plates clean and crisp, the binding exquisite. Light bumping and wear to a couple of corners, a touch of rubbing to the joints; light offset from the plates to the plate guards (blank interleaves which seem to be later, undoubtedly supplied when rebound), otherwise Fine. It's hard to imagine a better example of this spectacular and audacious work.

Most of the plates are by Robert Cruikshank, who figures in the book under the pseudonym "Robert Transit"; two plates are by Thomas Rowlandson, notably "R.—A.'s [Royal Academicians] of Genius Reflecting on the True Line of Beauty at the Life Academy" (featuring portraits of West, Shee, Haydon, Lawrence, Westmacott and Flaxman); a few other plates were contributed by G.M. Brighty and T. Wageman. In addition, there are numerous in-text woodcuts after Cruikshank, Rowlandson, Gillray and Finlay. The lively text is by the journalist C. M. Westmacott, notorious as a muck-raker and for extorting large sums of money from victims, including royalty, eager to keep their names out of print.

The English Spy provides a vivid panorama of English high- and low-life, "a veritable chronique scandaleuse of the time. In the pages of this extraordinary work figure all the notables of the day, either openly or under slight disguise" (Hardie: English Coloured Books). Described by Prideaux (Aquatint Engraving ) as "perhaps the most daring book ever published," as many of the characters in the book were instantly recognizable to its early readers, characters such as Lord Byron, Beau Brummell, Pierce Egan, Pea-green Hayne, Henry Brougham, the Duke of Wellington, etc.