[Rarebooks] fa: WILLIAM SHENSTONE - WORKS IN VERSE AND PROSE 1764 - Engravings/Plan of Gardens

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, September 17. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/y9yw4vr7

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

William Shenstone: The Works in Verse and Prose, of William Shenstone, Esq; Most of which were never before printed. In Two Volumes, with Decorations. London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley in Pall-mall, MDCCLXIV [1764]. FIRST EDITION. Two volumes, 8vo (21.5 cm), in full period speckled calf with contrasting morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, page edges dyed red; [2], viii, 345, [7] pp.; [6], 392 pp.; with two engraved frontispieces,  engraved vignettes, folding plan. ESTC T92444.

Includes the folding plan of Shenstone's gardens at The Leasowes, which is occasionally missing. Bindings with some rubbing and wear to the corners and spines, two small areas of abrasion and leather loss to the front boards; mild offsetting and spotting to the frontispieces and title-pages, occasional light toning elsewhere, one leaf in volume I with creases and small stains, folding plan with closed tears at the bottom folds, otherwise the contents are exceptionally clean and sound, firmly bound. Front free-endpaper in both volumes with the elegant  contemporary ink inscriptions of Eliz[abeth] Brydges, noting that the books were "gave her by her Husband Rich. Brydges 19th August 1773."

William Shenstone (1714-1764) was a pioneer landscape gardener as well as a poet and essayist, and the second volume includes his "Unconnected Thoughts on Gardening" as well as the first published detailed description (written by Dodsley, his publisher and editor) of his famous estate of The Leasowes, still a destination for devotees of the High-English style of garden. Also included are Shenstone's best known poetical works, "The Schoolmistress," a burlesque of Spenser, "The Judgment of Hercules" and "The Progress of Taste," as well as numerous elegies, odes, songs, "levities", "moral pieces", and essays.