[Rarebooks] fa: LEXICON BALATRONICUM: DICTIONARY OF BUCKISH SLANG 1811 - w/ Folding/Colored CRUIKSHANK FRONTIS.

[ArCh]

Listed now, auction ending MONDAY, Monday, May 5. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/y5h7lppd

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


[Francis Grose, Hewson Clarke; George Cruikshank (illus.):] Lexicon Balatronicum. A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence. Compiled originally by Captain Grose. And now considerably altered and enlarged, with the modern changes and improvements, by a member of the Whip Club. Assisted by Hell-Fire Dick, and James Gordon, Esqrs. of Cambridge; and William Soames, Esq. of the Hon. Society of Newman's Hotel. London: Printed for C. Chappel, 1811. First edition thus. Tall 8vo (23 cm) in later three-quarter morocco over marbled boards, marbled endpapers, top page edges gilt; viii, [221] pp.; letters "U" and "V" transposed, as issued; with the half-title and a folding, hand-colored frontispiece by George Cruikshank, Dinner of the Four in Hand Club at Salt Hill. Inscription: "G. Cruikshank — Published June 1st 1811 by M Jones 5 Margate Street." Laid down on linen; measures 370 x 220 mm.

Binding with very light bumping to the corners, bookplate removed from front paste-down; contents with light toning and spotting, a bit more  pronounced on a few leaves; early owner's occasional neat penciled marks and tidy marginal annotations; frontispiece with a a few minor spots and stains; else clean and sound, firmly and handsomely bound. Interestingly, this is the first state of the Cruikshank plate; according to Cohn (486), the book was issued with the second state of the same image, retitled "Bang-up Dinner or Love and Lingo." In any event, the book is rarely found with the Cruikshank frontispiece present in any state. An uncommonly nice copy.

Everything one would need to know to pass for a native in Regency London — especially the sketchier parts of town — from ACCOUNTS ("To cast up one's accounts; to vomit") to BUM BRUSHER ("A schoolmaster") to FAGGER ("A little boy put in at a window to rob a house") to RABBIT CATCHER ("A midwife") to SLAP-BANG SHOP ("A petty cook's shop where there is no credit given, but what is had must be paid down with the ready slap-bang, i.e., immediately. A common appellation for a night cellar frequented by thieves, and sometimes for a stage coach or caravan") to YELLOW BOYS ("Guineas") — and many others we won't elucidate here, e.g., CRINKUMS, DOCKED SMACK SMOOTH, RIDING ST. GEORGE, VENERABLE MONOSYLLABLE, etc., etc.