[Rarebooks] fa: RICHARD DAGLEY - TAKINGS or THE LIFE OF A COLLEGIAN 1821 - Fine Color Plates in Stunning Morocco Binding

[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 again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Richard Dagley [& Thomas Gaspey]: Takings; or The Life of a Collegian. A Poem. Illustrated by Twenty-Six Etchings, from Designs by R. Dagley. London: John Warren, Old Bond-Street, and G. and W.B. Whittaker, Ave-Maria Lane, 1821. FIRST EDITION. Tall 8vo (24 cm) bound in modern full crimson morocco with gilt designs on front and rear covers and spine; page edges gilt; xxxix + [9] + 184 pp. + 26 hand-colored plates with tissue guards. NCBEL III 724.

Front and rear hinges professionally repaired/restored, else Fine inside and out: a light hint of toning to the first and last leaves, a few (very few) stray small spots; otherwise the contents are spectacularly clean and bright, the hand-coloring rich and vivid, in a striking and sumptuous morocco binding with just a touch of light wear to the extremities. We have frankly never seen a fresher example of a color plate book of this vintage; by and large it looks like it might have been published last week rather than 190 years ago. Front paste-down with the armorial bookplate of department-store heir Rodman Wanamaker (1863-1928). A superb copy.

The book includes Dagley's interesting introductory essay, "Miscellaneous Observations on the Ludicrous in Art", in which he discusses the work of Gillray, Bunbury, Rowlandson, Cruikshank, and others. The title poem itself is by Thomas Gaspey, a journalist, reviewer and novelist who went on to become a "fine historian and prominent Victorian man of letters" (DNB). It tells the tale, à la Hogarth, of the rise and fall of a young Oxonian facing all the temptations and tribulations typical of late-Regency England: gambling, racing, sporting, prize-fighting, dueling, love affairs and broken  engagements, tailors and money-lenders, etc. This "Rake's Progress" is accompanied by Dagley's etchings, each an amusing play on the poem's title: Taking Advice, Taking Courage, Taking Aim, Taking Hints, etc., etc.