[Rarebooks] fa: WILLIAM SOMERVILE: THE CHACE + HOBBINOL or RURAL GAMES 1767

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, May 31. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

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Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


William Somervile: The Chace. A Poem. [BOUND WITH:] Hobbinol, or The Rural Games. A Burlesque Poem, in Blank Verse. London: Printed for W. Bowyer, W. Strahan, and R. Baldwin, 1767, 1768. Fifth editions. Two works in one volume, small 8vo (17 cm), bound in full period polished calf; xv, [1], 122 pp.; [4], 82 pp; with 8 engraved plates. ESTC T67409.

Two of Somervile's poetical paeans to hunting and sporting, each illustrated with four copper-engraved plates. The Chace, "which treats of hounds and kennels, hare-hunting, fox-hunting, and otter-hunting, with occasional digressions on oriental methods of the  chase" (Oxford Companion to English Literature), proved especially popular, going through multiple editions well into the nineteenth century. The second work is dedicated to William Hogarth, "the greatest master in the burlesque way."

Binding with a scuffed patch to the leather at the bottom of the rear board, front cover a bit bowed; some cockling to the text block, with scattered light spotting and dust-soiling; several leaves with bumps/creases to the corners; else generally clean and sound, firmly bound. Front endpaper with owner's signature of "John Wainwright July 1807."