Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Gray, [Thomas]. Odes. Printed at Strawberry-Hill for R. and J. Dodsley, [London], 1757.
Price: US$950.00 + shipping
Description: Small 4to, half-title present, 21pp; nineteenth-century full morocco by Morrell, London. The first book published at Walpole's Strawberry Hill Press, from the first printing, on thin paper, with "Illissus" on p. 8, "Swarm," on p. 16. Armorial bookplate; some pages partially loose and with moderate general marking; half-title has been restored; wear to spine ends, with the lower two-inches partly detached; edges rubbed
Seller: Locus Solus Rare Books (ABAA, ILAB), Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
Gray, [Thomas]. Odes by Mr. Gray. Printed at Strawberry-Hill for R. and J. Dodsley, [London], 1757.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Contemporary calf, boards ruled in gilt, gilt-stamped lettering on spine; 4to (255x187mm); pp. 21. First Edition, First Issue, with "Ilissus" on page 8, line 17; comma after "Swarm" on page 16, line 19. The first book published by Horace Walpole at his Strawberry Hill Press. Bottom corners a little bumped and chipped; boards a little rubbed here and there. A lovely copy.
Seller: Sanctuary Books, A.B.A.A., New York, NY, U.S.A.
Thomas Gray. Odes - The Bradley Martin Copy. Strawberry-Hill, 1757.
Price: US$2204.82 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 6 works bound in 1 volumed, browned endpapers lightly browned, ink signature of Tighe and inscribed ¿St. John¿s College Cambridge Anno D.; 1759¿ on front pastedown, Bradley Martin copy with bookplate on front pastedown, contemporary calf, corners bumped, rebacked, 4to. in relation to the individual works; Odes - first edition, vignette on title, half-title, [Hazen & Kirby 1], Printed at Strawberry-Hill, 1757 bound with [Akenside (Mark)] The Pleasures of Imagination. A Poem, first edition, title in red and black with engraved vignette, advertisement leaf at end, [Rothschild 20], R. Dodsley, 1744 bound with An Ode to the Country Gentleman of England, The Second Edition, R. and J. Dodsley, 1758 bound with An Ode to. the Earl of Huntingdon, first edition, half-title, 2pp. of advertisements at end, R. Dodsley and M. Cooper, 1748 bound with Mason (William) Odes, second edition, engraved vignette on title, Cambridge, William Thurlbourn and R. and J. Dodsley, 1756 bound with [Akenside (Mark)] Odes on Several Subjects, first edition, large engraved vignette on title, small tear on half-title, R. Dodsley, 1745,
Seller: Temple Bar Bookshop, Dublin, DUB, Ireland
Price: US$2238.50 + shipping
Description: First edition, pirated issue, 4to (26 x 20 cm); half-title, engraved vignette view of Strawberry Hill House to title-page, some light spotting, bookplates to front pastedown and verso of front free endpaper, clipped catalogue descriptions and previous owner's note tipped in to recto of front free endpaper; 19th century calf with simple gilt rule borders to covers, contrasting red morocco title-piece to spine, by Maclehose of Glasgow; 21, [1]pp. A famous [re]issue of the first work ever printed by the Strawberry Hill press, which has been the source of considerable bibliographical bafflement and bemusement over the years. This issue was for many years believed to be the first produced by Walpole due to the superior quality of the paper, the misspelling 'Illissus' (p.8, Ode II, 3, line 3), and the missing comma after 'Swarm' (Ode II, 2, line 7). However, the bibliographer Hazen has, it is now fairly widely recognised, established through extensive research that this edition is in fact an unauthorised printing undertaken by Kirgate forty years later. One of the other aspects that had many believing this was the true first issue is the fact that it is actually scarcer than the first, currently believed to be one of only circa 1,000 copies, whereas the 1757 issue was more likely produced in a run of about 2,000. ESTC records just 4 copies of pirated issue in institutional collections. With provenance for Arthur Kay (1861-1939). Famed as an art collector, Kay's notes and clipped catalogue entries here suggests he was also a serious book collector. The etched bookplate was created by his wife Katharine Kay née Cameron, a watercolourist & etcher from the Glasgow School of Art, where she had been one of the self-styled 'Immortals', a group that included the sisters Margaret and Frances Macdonald, the former marrying the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, a fellow student of Cameron in the early 1890s. The binding by the Maclehose of Glasgow was presumably commissioned by Kay. ESTC N61348; Hazen 1; cf. Rothschild 1067.
Seller: Shapero Rare Books, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$2250.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition. 4to. Bound in fine 19th Century full tan polished calf, two raised bands with brown morocco lettering-piece on wide center panel on spine, gilt stamped designs on top and bottom panels of spine, attractive gilt stamped dentelles, bright turquoise endsheets (original to binding), stamp-signed by Riviere. Half-title; engraved device on title-page. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, with "Ilissus" on p.8 and the comma after "Swarm" on p.16. The first book printed at Horace Walpole's Strawberry-Hill Press. Cover levant and clean fresh, wear along spine margin, small discreet repair to inner blank margin of the first few leaves, barely noticeable). Quite a nice presentation indeed.
Seller: Nudelman Rare Books, Seattle, WA, U.S.A.