Odes Gray by Gray Thomas, First Edition (5 results)

Soft cover. Condition: Good. First Edition Thus. 64 pp paper covers. Covers a little tanned with inscription and small hole to front - sound copy. Light book Air Mail will be reduced.

First edition, pirated issue, 4to (26 x 20 cm); half-title, engraved vignette view of Strawberry Hill House to title-page, some light spotting, bookplates to front pastedown and verso of front free endpaper, clipped catalogue descriptions and previous owner's note tipped in to recto of front free endpaper; 19th century calf with simple gilt rule borders to covers, contrasting red morocco title-piece to spine, by Maclehose of Glasgow; 21, [1]pp. A famous [re]issue of the first work ever printed by the Strawberry Hill press, which has been the source of considerable bibliographical bafflement and bemusement over the years. This issue was for many years believed to be the first produced by Walpole due to the superior quality of the paper, the misspelling 'Illissus' (p.8, Ode II, 3, line 3), and the missing comma after 'Swarm' (Ode II, 2, line 7). However, the bibliographer Hazen has, it is now fairly widely recognised, established through extensive research that this edition is in fact an unauthorised printing undertaken by Kirgate forty years later. One of the other aspects that had many believing this was the true first issue is the fact that it is actually scarcer than the first, currently believed to be one of only circa 1,000 copies, whereas the 1757 issue was more likely produced in a run of about 2,000. ESTC records just 4 copies of pirated issue in institutional collections. With provenance for Arthur Kay (1861-1939). Famed as an art collector, Kay's notes and clipped catalogue entries here suggests he was also a serious book collector. The etched bookplate was created by his wife Katharine Kay nà e Cameron, a watercolourist & etcher from the Glasgow School of Art, where she had been one of the self-styled 'Immortals', a group that included the sisters Margaret and Frances Macdonald, the former marrying the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, a fellow student of Cameron in the early 1890s. The binding by the Maclehose of Glasgow was presumably commissioned by Kay. ESTC N61348; Hazen 1; cf. Rothschild 1067.

First edition, with the half-title, correct readings of "Ilissus" and "Swarm,". Engraved title-page vignette. 21 pp. 1 vols. 4to. The first book printed by Horace Walpole at his Strawberry Hill Press, in an edition of 2000 copies. How Gray's two Pindaric Odes ("The Progress of Poesy" and "The Bard") ended up in Walpole's hands is best described in his own words: "I found him [Gray] in town last week: he had brought his two odes to be printed. I snatched them out of Dodsley's hands, and they are to be the first fruits of my press.". Rothschild 1067; Hayward 174; Hazen 1 Full brown morocco, spine titled in gilt, boards with central ornament in blind, a.e.g., by Riviere & Son. Spine lightly rubbed, near fine Engraved title-page vignette. 21 pp. 1 vols. 4to First edition, with the half-title, correct readings of "Ilissus" and "Swarm,".

First Edition. First Edition. 4to. Bound in fine 19th Century full tan polished calf, two raised bands with brown morocco lettering-piece on wide center panel on spine, gilt-stamped designs on top and bottom panels of spine, attractive gilt-stamped dentelles, bright turquoise endsheets (original to binding), stamp-signed by Riviere. Half-title; engraved device on title-page. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, with "Ilissus" on p.8 and the comma after "Swarm" on p.16. The first book printed at Horace Walpole's Strawberry-Hill Press. Cover levant and clean fresh, wear along spine margin, small discreet repair to inner blank margin of the first few leaves, barely noticeable). Quite a nice presentation indeed.

Dyer, John (illustrator). (STRAWBERRY HILL PRESS) GRAY, Thomas, John Dyer, John Cooper, and Robert G. ODES BY MR. GRAY, bound with THE FLEECE, bound with EPISTLES TO THE GREAT, FR ARISTIPPUS IN RETIREMENT, bound with THE DAY OF JUDGMENT: A POETICAL ESSAY. F works bound in one volume. (London): Strawberry Hill, 1757; London: R. and J. Dodsley, 1757; and Cambridge: J. Bentham, 1758. 4to. Later pebble cloth. 21 pages; (iv), 156 pag 48 pages; and 16 pages. First and third editions. A composite of English eighteenth century poetry with an association to an English general who served as royal governor of New York before the Revolutio Robert Monckton. He served in the British army in America where he distinguished himself during the French and Indian War and was with General W at the Battle of Quebec. He was also the British officer in charge of the deportation of the French citizens of French Arcadia in Canada to Louisiana during the war, and was appointed governor of New York in 1762 until 1765, bu returned to Britain in 1763 never to return to America. His signature is on front blank leaf of the first work, Gray's Odes. Gray's poem was printed at Strawberry Hill and is the first edition, first printing of the work with the "Ilissus" at 8:17 and a comma after "Swarm" at 16:19 -- the first work publis at Walpole's press in 1757. The next two poems were printed in London by R. J. Dodsley in the same year, and the last one at Cambridge by Bentham in 1758 The last work, Glynn's Day of Judgment, was the Seatonian Prize poem for 1757 Glynn was a noted physician who attended on Thomas Gray in his final illness. Later bookplate, very good.