[Rarebooks] fa: THE GROUP or AN ELEGANT REPRESENTATION - Philadelphia: 1796 (Scarce Satire re. Jay Treaty)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, November 2. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/phzj5gm

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


[William Cliffton:] The Group: or An Elegant Representation Illustrated. Embellished with a beautiful head of S. Verges, C.S. Philadelphia: Printed for Thomas Stephens, By Lang and Ustick, MDCCXCVI [1796]. FIRST EDITION. Small 4to (18.5 x 15 cm), stitch-bound in early/period marbled wraps; 35 + [1] pp.; engraved portrait frontispiece. Sabin 13695; Evans 30202; Wegelin, Early American Poetry, 75.

A verse satire in support of George Washington's administration and the Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation Between His Britannic Majesty and The United States of America, commonly known as the Jay Treaty after its chief American negotiator, John Jay. Much of the poem is in the form of a dialogue "in which various mechanics and tradesmen, Solon Verges a carpenter [the subject of the frontispiece], Nat Futtock a  shipwright, Gobbo Finis a coffin-maker, John Stripe a schoolmaster, with others, are represented as meeting for discussion on topics beyond their reach, respecting politics and the state. The coarse and vulgar material of low Jacobinism, which is not at all disguised in the poem, is occasionally elevated by the polish of the author's verses" (Cyclopaedia of American Literature, 1875). Authorship is attributed to William Cliffton, son of a wealthy Quaker, whose ill health allowed him the time for literary pursuits. His works are noted for their "vituperations of the French revolutionists and the party enemies of the writer" [i.e., Jefferson's Democratic-Republicans] (Kettel, Specimens of American Poetry). He died in 1799 at the age of twenty-seven.

Wraps with chipping and loss at the spine, a bit bumped at the top fore-corner; light offsetting to the title-page from the frontispiece, a few occasional small spots to the leaves, otherwise the contents are exceedingly clean and fresh, firmly bound. A very uncommon early American imprint, especially so in this condition.