[Rarebooks] fa: 1785 Gentleman's Magazine: PORT ROYAL - JAMES OGLETHORPE - PHOENIX FIRE CO., &c.

[ArCh]

Auction ends Sunday, April 9. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/4aza4u85

Many thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


The Gentleman's Magazine: and Historical Chronicle. Volume LV [55]. For the Year MDCCLXXXV [1785]. Part the Second. London: Printed by John Nichols for David Henry, 1785. Six monthly issues (July-Dec.), with the supplement and index. Thick 8vo in early/period calf-backed marbled boards, gilt-lettered morocco spine label; 4, [491]-1036, [32] pp.; with 13 copper-engraved plates, eight of which are folding (complete); plus a 4-page preliminary advertisement for the Phoenix Company, or New Fire-Office, with an engraved vignette.

The PLATES include: a folding Plan of the Town of Old Port Royal, Jamaica; Astronomical Phenomenon observed in Russia; the Baschkirian Bear Trap [Russia]; a Portrait of Benjamin Martin, Optician; A Machine for raising Water by means of a Windsail; Two Medals of Sir Richard Shelley, the last English Grand Master of the order of St. John of Jerusalem; A quadruped, the Slepetz, a kind of mouse; Plan of Druidical Remains at Stanton Drew, Somerset; Plan of an Antient Bath at Scrisheim, near Heidelberg, etc.

Other notable, curious and/or characteristic features include:
	- Obituaries of remarkable Persons, including: James Oglethorpe, founder of the colony of Georgia (and elsewhere in this volume, an Account of Gen. Oglethorpe's Plan of peopling Georgia); Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orleans; the actress Catherine (Kitty) Clive; and many others that read like the stuff of eighteenth-century novels (Sarah Goldsmith, aged 47, who, "since the death of her mother about five years ago, contracted such habits of indolence and avarice that [she] shut herself up from every one, even her own relations... found dead on the hearth, with only a silk cloak tied tight about her neck, and in her room good cloaths, money, and... provisions, hoarded up in a most filthy condition..."); etc., etc.
	- Vindication of Dr. [Benjamin] Franklin, from a Charge against him
	- Natural Curiosities Discovered in Russia
	- Earthquake in Jamaica in 1692 described
	- Authentic Account and Inscription of Peter the Wild Boy [from Hamelen in Hanover]
	- Bill proposed for regulating the Intercourse with Ireland
	- An Account Crosbie's memorable Attempt to cross the Irish Sea in a Balloon
	- Memoirs of the celebrated Prof. [Simon] Pallas
	- State of Britain in 1763 and 1783 contrasted
	- Dr. Johnson's Character of Baretti
	- Critical Remarks on Pope's Homer [by William Cowper]
	- Account of Gainsborough the Inventor (brother of the painter)
	- High Prices of rare Books
	- "Mrs. Montague [Elizabeth Montagu] happening to fall at St. James's, the day after her accident; she received the following lines written by Mr. [Edward] Jerningham"
	- Original Letter, in seven Languages, from a Lady to Tristram Shandy
	- Johnsoniana, from Boswell's Journey
	- Strictures on Mr. Boswell; Boswell's Gong
	- Gibbon's History vindicated and applauded
	- A Grub Ballad, supposed to be by [Jonathan] Swift
	- Druidical Remains at Stanton-Drew described
	- Baschkirian Management of Bees
	- Remarkable Deformity of Lace-workers
	- Remarkably large Willow-Tree described
	- Dr. Moseley's Elucidation of the Virtues of Coffee
	- Fat found in Coffins, how to be accounted for
	- Snuff mortal to Toads
	- Plus monthly Intelligence from America, the West Indies, Europe, etc., parliamentary debates, poetry, Prices of Stocks and Goods, Accounts of Theatrical Performances, Reviews and Extracts of Books recently published, Obituaries, Bills of Mortality, lists of Bankrupts and Promotions; and much, much more.