[Rarebooks] fa: DR. COMICUS or THE FROLICS OF FORTUNE 1815 - Colored Plates/Zaehnsdorf Binding

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, June 19. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/jj9n2rw

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


[William Combe and Thomas Rowlandson (imitation of):] Dr. Comicus or the Frolics of Fortune. [London:] B. Blake, Bell Yard, Temple Bar, [ca.1815-20]. Full citron calf binding by Sangorski & Sutcliffe/Zahensdorf (so signed on the front free-endpaper), elaborately gilt-tooled spine and turn-ins, marbled endpapers, all page edges gilt; [2], 269, [1] pp.; with twelve hand-colored plates, including the illustrated title-page. Abbey Life 254; Tooley 431 (for the first edition).

Presumably the 1820 reprint, which, according to Tooley, was issued with twelve plates (the 1815 edition had fifteen). Bound without a letterpress title-page, if called for; a few insignificant hints of rubbing to the binding; occasional toning and offsetting to the plates, a few small spots to the text leaves, else unusually clean and fresh. One of a flurry of knock-offs issued in the wake of the hugely popular Tours of Dr. Syntax by William Combe and Thomas Rowlandson. Abbey describes it, not without reason, as "artistically an extremely crude imitation." Still, a nice, bright example in a striking binding.