RECOLLECTIONS OF THE TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS. TO WHICH IS ADDED PORSONIANA

London: Edward Moxon, 1856. Apparently the FIRST EDITION. 200 x 130 mm. (7 7/8 x 5 1/8"). viii, 355 pp. (bound with the half title and with an inserted plate as frontispiece).Edited by Alexander Dyce.
VERY PLEASING SLIGHTLY LATER DARK BROWN CRUSHED MOROCCO, ATTRACTIVELY GILT, covers with French fillet border and elegant botanical cornerpieces, raised bands, heavily gilt spine in compartments featuring elaborate scrolling cornerpieces, an intricate fleuron centerpiece, and tiny circlets, turn-ins with plain and stippled rules and filigree gilt decoration at corners and midpoints of two sides, textured (silk?) brown and cream millefleur-patterned endpapers, all edges gilt. EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED WITH 55 PORTRAIT PLATES, five in color, all with tissue guards. Verso of the front free endpaper with the engraved bookplate of Robert B. Lawrence. ◆A hint of browning to some of the inserted plates, but A FINE AND HANDSOMELY BOUND COPY, the text especially fresh, clean, and smooth, and the binding bright and virtually unworn.

This is a tastefully bound collection of anecdotes and witty banter recorded by poet Samuel Rogers, whose private means made his gracious home in Westminster a gathering place for the poets and artists of the age. Scion of a wealthy banking family, Rogers (1763-1855) achieved fame with the publication of "The Pleasures of Memory" in 1792. His friend Alexander Dyce, who compiled the present work, tells us in the preface that Rogers "was in the habit of writing down, in all their minutiae, the anecdotes, &c. with which his conversation abounded." These records provide us with an intriguing glimpse of literary society in London in the first half of the 19th century. Our second work, "Porsoniana," contains anecdotes about the "very eminent Greek scholar" Richard Porson (1759-1808), related to Dyce by that individual's close friend William Morby. This edition is one of at least three printings that were issued by Moxon in the initial publication year, and it would seem to be the first appearance of the text. In any case, our volume has the added feature of 55 inserted engravings of the persons discussed in the book. Although the binding is apparently unsigned, the owner's bookplate on the front flyleaf is placed near enough to the top edge that it may be obscuring a stamped binder's signature. The work displayed here is certainly of high enough caliber to have been produced by Riviere or Zaehnsdorf..