Typographical Antiquities: or, an Historical Account of the Origin and Progress of Printing in Great Britain and Ireland. 3 volumes [complete set]

Ames, Joseph; Herbert, William (ed.)

Published by Printed for the Editor, London, 1785

About this Item

3 volumes in 4to, frontispiece with mezzotint portrait of Joseph Ames, [6], XLIV, 684, [2] pp., 6 engraved plates (1 folding); [2] pp., pp. 685-1308, [2] pp.; [2] pp., pp. 1309-1876, 2 engraved plates. Half dark green morocco over marbled boards, spines with five raised bands, gilt-ruled and gilt-lettered, marbled edges and endpapers (bindings rubbed at extremities; occasional light browning and scattered foxing; offsets from engravings and general age-toning of paper). From the library of Estelle Doheny, with morocco gilt bookplates on the pastedowns of each volume. The enlarged and greatly augmented edition, edited by the bookseller and bibliographer William Herbert (1718-1795), of what remains the foundational reference work on the history of printing in England from Caxton's introduction of the art in 1471 through the year 1600. First published by Joseph Ames (1689-1759) in 1749, the work was the earliest systematic attempt to document English printing and established the basis for all subsequent bibliographical scholarship in the field. Herbert acquired from Sir Peter Thompson Ames's own interleaved copy with substantial manuscript additions, and expanded the original text by adding no fewer than seventy printers unrecorded by Ames, together with the register of books entered in the Stationers' Company, memoirs of booksellers as well as printers, and extensive accounts of printing in Scotland and Ireland. The work concludes in vol. III with a General History of English Printing, Corrections and Additions, and comprehensive indexes of authors and translators. The subscribers' list forms a remarkable roll-call of late Georgian antiquarianism, including Francis Douce, Edmund Malone, George Steevens, Thomas Astle, Alexander Dalrymple, and Richard Gough, who also contributed the memoir of Ames. Although the directions to the binder mention only one portrait of Ames, the present copy contains an additional portrait. Vol. II was published in 1786 and vol. III in 1790. A good copy, from the library of the noted American collector Estelle Doheny, sold at Christie's, New York, in 1989, of the essential English bibliographical authority.

Seller Inventory # 009732

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Typographical Antiquities: or, an Historical Account of the Origin and Progress of Printing in Great Britain and Ireland. 3 volumes [complete set]
• Publisher: Printed for the Editor, London
• Publication Date: 1785
• Language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Printing
  • BIBLIOGRAPHY
  • Incunabula