The Three Tours of Doctor Syntax: The Tour of Doctor Syntax, in Search of the Picturesque, [together with] The Second Tour of Doctor Syntax, in Search of Consolation, [and] The Third Tour of Doctor Syntax, in Search of a Wife.

FIRST EDITION of the second and third volumes, 7th edition of the first volume. 3 vols. 8vo. (22 x 13.5 cm). pp. iii+[i, directions to binder]+276; [iii, introduction and directions to binder]+277; [ii, preface]+279. Finely bound in full red morocco by Bayntun, spines with raised bands and gilt in compartments, sides with gilt tooling, inner gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, red ribbon page markers, all edges gilt. Housed in a custom made burgundy box. In total 78 aquatinted plates after Thomas Rowlandson, 2 engraved titles, and one aquatinted vignette, all with original hand-colouring, comprising: Volume 1: Aquatinted frontispiece, engraved title, 29 aquatinted plates. Volume 2: Aquatinted frontispiece, 23 aquatinted plates. Volume 3: Aquatinted frontispiece, engraved title, 23 aquatinted plates, one aquatinted vignette. An excellent set of Rowlandson's most enduring work. Thomas Rowlandson (1757- 1827) was an English artist and caricaturist of the Georgian Era, noted for his political satire and social observation. A prolific artist and printmaker, Rowlandson produced both individual social and political satires, as well as large number of illustrations for novels, humorous books, and topographical works. Like other caricaturists of his age such as James Gillray, his caricatures are often robust or bawdy. Rowlandson also produced highly explicit erotica for a private clientele; this was never published publicly at the time and is now only found in a small number of collections. His caricatures included those of people in power such as the Duchess of Devonshire, William Pitt the Younger and Napoleon Bonaparte. William Combe (1742-1823) was a British miscellaneous writer chiefly remembered as the author of The Three Tours of Doctor Syntax, a comic poem, illustrated by artist Thomas Rowlandson's colour plates, that satirised William Gilpin. *According to Tooley: "[E]normously popular from the outset Dr. Syntax went into many editions, no less than 2 in 1812, 3 in 1813, others in 1815, 1817, and 2 in 1819". The plates in volume 1 are dated 1815-1819 (the vast majority being dated 1815). (Tooley, 427-429).…