[Hand-Colored] Glances at Character [Brent Gration-Maxfield's copy]

London: Printed by Whittingham and Rowland, Goswell Street; For John Carr, 56, Paternoster-Row, 1814. First Edition. Full Calf. Fine. First Edition of this uncommon satirical depiction of various Regency-era character types and memes, in verse. Crown 8vo: viii,158,[2]pp, with eight delicately hand-colored aquatints, including the frontispiece. Complete with half-title and two pages of publisher's advertisements. (In every copy we've seen, plate no. 5, often described as bound out of sequence, is placed between plates nos. 7 and 8, and according to the text, that is where it belongs.) Later full tan calf, covers framed with French fillet and gilt sunburst ornament to corners, richly gilt spine in six compartments divided by raised bands, red morocco lettering piece gilt, gilt turn-ins, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. From the collection of bibliophile Brent Gration-Maxfield, with his characteristic manuscript ex-libris and tidy bibliographic notes ("collated perfect," "only blemish is a slight mark on the half title"). Gration-Maxfield library was dispersed in a series of sales by Sotheby's in the early 1980s. An excellent, wide-margined, hand-colored example, mild offsetting from plates, a few stray spots, else contents clean, bright, and handsomely bound. Very scarce in commerce and uncommon in institutional collections, with OCLC listing only 10 holdings worlwide. Not in Hardie, Abbey, or Tooley, and only J. Clark (but not this title) mentioned in Prideaux. This anonymous volume of humorous poetry collects 22 works satirizing English eccentrics, among them, the "bounce" (a bullying braggart), the country physician, the slave to fashion, the scholar of dead languages, and old maids and young lovers. The engraver, John Heaviside Clark, was a Scottish painter of seascapes and landscapes active in the first third of the nineteenth century. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).