Commentaries on the Laws of England, In Four Books

1794. A Curious Hybrid of Two Pirate Editions Blackstone, Sir William [1723-1780]. Commentaries on The Laws of England, In Four Books. The Twelfth Edition. With the Last Corrections of the Author; Additions by Richard Burn, LL.D. And Continued to the Present Time by John Williams, Esq. Dublin: Printed for L. White, William Jones, And John Rice, 1794. [Volume I]. [And] Blackstone, Sir William. Commentaries on The Laws of England. The Thirteenth Edition, With the Last Corrections of the Author; Additions by Richard Burn, LL.D. And John Williams, Esq. And Continued to the Present Time, By Edward Christian, Esq. Dublin: Printed for L. White, William Jones, And John Rice, 1796. [Volumes II, III, IV]. Four volumes in all. Complete set, 12mo. (6-3/4" x 4"). Contemporary calf, lettering pieces and blind fillets to boards. Light scuffing and a few stains to boards, moderate rubbing to extremities, chipping to spine ends, a few joints and hinges starting, rear board of Volume II beginning to separate, but secure. Moderate toning to text, somewhat heavier in places, lower corner lacking from leaf Dd1 in Volume I (pp. 313-314) with no loss to text, lower corner lacking from Leaf Dd5 in Volume III (pp. 317-318), about 1" removed from heads of front free endpaper, most likely to remove signatures, recent owner signature to front free endpaper of Volume I. $1,500. * This set consists of pirated editions. Volume I is a reprint of the authentic eleventh edition, London, 1791, and the other volumes are reprints of the authentic twelfth edition, London 1793-1795, which has extensive notes by Edward Christian at the end of each volume. Our copy of Volume I in an unusual "hybrid" because it has text of the earlier edition and the notes from the later edition. The appearance of this set and its binding indicates this set was assembled around 1796. Volume II does not have the Table of Descents and folding Table of Consanguinity. Though indicated in the index, which is at the end of Volume IV, it appears these tables were never issued. These tables do not appear in the copy listed in Eller and Laeuchli (at Yale Law School) or those listed on OCLC. Eller, The William Blackstone Collection at Yale University 22,23. Laeuchli, A Bibliographical Catalog of William Blackstone 27,28.