Title: The Works of Mr. William Congreve, ...
Publisher: London J. and R. Tonson Printed by John Baskerville
Publication Date: 1761
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Very Good
Edition: 1st Baskerville edition
3 volumes, Royal 8vo. xxiv, [16], 164, [20], 187-358, [2]pp; [12], 17-274, [20], 295-514, [2]p; [12], 17-514pp, [2pp], engraved portrait of the author by T. Chambers after Sir Geoffrey Kneller, 5 plates by Grignion after Hayman. Contemporary marbled endpapers and engraved armorial ex libris bookplates on each paste-down. Owner's signature of Frances Sheck on preliminary blank page (that has marginal tear on lower edge). Sporadic and mild old foxing and stains. 23.5 x 14.5 cm. Full contemporary calf, rebacked sympathetically and professionally with red morocco labels, gilt lettering and numbers, & gilt rules. Corners neatly repaired. Congreve only wrote five plays, with a brief but successful career, his plays written between 1693 and 1700. He was also a member of the Whig Kit-Kat CLub, turning his career towards politics after his brief playwright career. These volumes contain: I. The old batchelor. The double dealer ; II. Love for love. The way of the world ; III. The mourning bride. The judgment of Paris. Semele. Poems upon several occasions. Provenance: Rt. Hon. Sir John Rolt's copy. Sir John Rolt PC QC (1804-71) was an English lawyer, Conservative politician and judge who served as Attorney General under Lord Derby. He was only knighted in 1866 so the armorial bookplates indicate these volumes belonged to Rolt as Attorney General or during his retirement to his estate, Ozleworth Park, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire. The only Baskerville edition. Baskerville is a serif typeface designed in the 1750s by John Baskerville (1706-75) in Birmingham, England, and cut into metal by punchcutter John Handy, influenced by the calligraphy Baskerville had learned and taught as a young man. ESTC T26067. Gaskell 16. Attractive copy with historic provenance. Bookseller Inventory # 4492