PROPERTY OF THE LATE LORD KENYON
AMES, Joseph. Typographical Antiquities: being an historical account of printing in England. London: W. Faden for J. Robinson, 1749.

Details
AMES, Joseph. Typographical Antiquities: being an historical account of printing in England. London: W. Faden for J. Robinson, 1749.

4° (260 x 190mm). Engraved frontispiece showing printers' devices, title in red and black, engraved dedication, list of subscribers, 6 engraved plates including portrait of Caxton. (Occasional very light browning.) Contemporary red morocco, covers with broad gilt border edged with triple fillets, incorporating an insect and animal roll, spine gilt in six compartments with raised bands, brown leather lettering-piece, gilt dentelles also with insect roll, g.e., probably by a Cambridge binder(corners slightly bumped). Provenance: Philip, 1st Earl of Hardwicke (dedicatee; by descent in Wimpole Hall library, Cambs. until); Viscount Clifden (sold Sotheby's lot 5, 22 July 1937); H. Marx (bought on commission by Quaritch for ¨5.10.0); Messrs. Dawsons of Pall Mall (Catalogue 208, no. 5); Lord Kenyon.

DEDICATEE'S COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION IN A FINE BINDING. The book is accompanied by detailed research notes and correspondence entered into by Lord Kenyon to establish its provenance, as well as a letter from Howard Nixon commenting on the binding, and describing the coiled snake motif as "a fairly rare ingredient". Philip, first Earl of Hardwicke, to whom the work is dedicated, acquired the Wimpole Hall estates in Cambridgeshire in 1740 for ¨100,000. In 1891, the estates passed to Thomas Carlyle, 2nd Baron Robartes, later 6th Viscount Clifden for the sum ¨250,000, probably in settlement of a bad debt or mortgage: Lord Kenyon notes that apparently "all the contents were included in this transaction", and, despite the sale in 1937, a large part of the Hardwicke library remains at Wimpole Hall today.

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