Poetical Magazine;

Fifty Hand Colored Aquatint Plates by Thomas Rowlandson The First Appearance of 'Doctor Syntax' [ROWLANDSON, Thomas, illustrator]. Poetical Magazine; Dedicated to the Lovers of the Muse, by the Agent of the Goddess, R. Ackermann. [London]: Pub.at R. Ackermann's Repository of Arts, [1809-1811]. First edition, bound from the original 24 parts, containing the first appearance of Doctor Syntax. Four octavo volumes (8 1/8 x 5 1/8 inches; 208 x 130 mm.). iv, [5], 6-404, [4, index]; [1]-372, [3, index], [1, printer's imprint]; 46, 49-94, 97-142, 145-190, 193-238, 241-286, [289]-364, [4, index]; [1]-38, 39-92, 93-138, 139-184, 185-230, 231-342, [3, index], [1, blank] pp. With four uncolored stipple-engraved titles, two uncolored engraved plates, and fifty hand-colored aquatint plates. One woodcut in the text. Mid-to-late twentieth century three-quarter tan calf over marbled boards, ruled in blind. Spines with five raised bands decoratively tooled in compartments, maroon morocco labels lettered in gilt. With an old bookseller's (before it was rebound) printed description affixed to a front blank in volume I. Minor offsetting from plates to facing pages of text, occasional very light foxing to a few leaves of text, otherwise a very good example of this important color-plate book. This example, as in the majority of copies, has been bound without the "Poetical Advertisement" leaf between pp. 112 and 113 in Volume I; the titles to the Supplements (called for by Abbey) between pp. 320 and 321 in Volume I, pp. 288 and 289 in Volume II, pp. 286 and 289, and pp. 190 and 193 in Volume III, and pp. 276 and 277 in Volume IV; the "To Readers and Correspondents" leaves between pp. 46 and 49, pp. 94 and 97, pp. 142 and 145, pp. 238 and 241, and pp. 286 and 289 in Volume III; and before p. 1 and between pp. 276 and 277 in Volume IV. The Poetical Magazine was essentially an anthology of both old and new poetry. For example, on page 238 of volume III appears Phillis Wheatley's To the University of Cambridge, in New England, which had first appeared in her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773). "This magazine was probably started by Ackermann as a receptacle for the overflow of poetical effusions sent for publication in the Repository of Arts, whose fourth number gives the first prospectus of the venture. It is chiefly remarkable as the first appearance of the famous Doctor Syntax, who, under the title of The Schoolmaster's Tour, ran through the whole of the publication, to be reprinted in volume form under the title of Doctor Syntax in Search of the Picturesque. Its success was enormous, everything of an attractive nature being dubbed 'Syntax'. Apparently the poem-a jog-trot imitation of Hudibras-was composed by William Combe from the drawings of Rowlandson, and not, as would be expected, vice versa. Rowlandson supplied a series of sketches, and the poet built a story around them. A very difficult item to find complete; copies are invariably rebound without the leaves To Readers removed. Up to and including Part 13, these were printed on the inside of the front wrapper, but from part 14 onwards they form part of the text. Up to part 18 these leaves are included in the pagination, but from Part 19 they are not." (Abbey. Life in England, p 193). Abbey, Life, 214; Prideaux, pp. 128 and 131; Tooley 421.…