[Rarebooks] fa: POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM WOTY - Subscribers include Samuel Johnson and James Boswell - 1770

[ArCh]

Auction ends Sunday, October 29. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

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Many thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

William Woty: The Poetical Works of Mr. William Woty. London: Printed by G. Scott, for W. Flexney, Opposite Gray's Inn Gate, MDCCLXX [1770]. First edition. Two volumes, 8vo (19.5 cm), bound in early morocco, rebacked in modern calf, gilt-tooled borders and spine lettering, marbled endpapers; [16], xi, [1], 159, [1] pp.; [4], 175, [1] pp.; with a list of subscribers. ESTC N12044.

The 8-page list of subscribers includes both Samuel Johnson and James Boswell; the doctor-philosopher-poet Erasmus Darwin; the playwright George Colman; the actor David Garrick; the colonial governor of Massachusetts Bay, Thomas Pownall; as well as a Mr. Pingo, a Mr. Precious and a Mr. Peachy, and the Rev. Mr. Unit. William Woty (c. 1731-1791) was a Grub Street miscellaneous writer, sometimes described as a hack, who had previously coedited The Poetical Calendar (1763), to which Johnson contributed a sketch of the life of William Collins. Woty salutes his subscribers in a prefatory verse ("All hail Subscription!"). Other poems in this eclectic collection include: The Wig; The Cork-Screw; The Tobacco-Stopper; A Tankard of Porter; A Pinch of Snuff; Hymn to the Deity; and The Death of Abel.

An attractive set: bindings with bumping and wear to the corners; offsetting (browning) to the edges of the first and last leaves, occasional light toning elsewhere, otherwise very clean and sound, firmly and handsomely bound. Front paste-downs with the early book labels of David Rice Rees of Llandovery (Wales).