Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$125.93 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: printed by A Ward, [iv] 416 [1] [1] 111 [1]pp, half title, engraved portrait frontispiece (lightly offset onto title), contemporary calf (slightly worn - spine more so, joints cracked), red morocco spine label chipped, small engraved bookplate (Philip Langdale) on front pastedown, few light spots, 4to (21x26.5cm), ESTC T107045
Seller: Flora Books, Mears Ashby, United Kingdom
Price: US$127.19 + shipping
Description: A collection of the poetry of Thomas Gray, with an extensive memoir of his life. Second edition. Edited by W. Mason and with an additional memoir of the poets life. With an engraved frontispiece of Gray. Thomas Gray was a poet born in 1716. Publishing only 13 poems during his lifetime he gained great popularity, and was famously offered to position of Poet Laureate, which he declined. A lovely edition of Gray's poetical works ideal for those with an interest in the poetry of the 18th century. In a tree calf binding. Externally, sound, though with some wear to the extremities, including some rubbing. Front joint has failed, with board detached, and rear joint is tender. Small institutional label to front pastedown. Internally, generally firmly bound. Pages are bright, with just a few instances of foxing. Good Only
Seller: Rooke Books PBFA, Bath, United Kingdom
GRAY, [Thomas].. Poems by Mr. Gray.. Dublin, William Sleater, 1775., 1775.
Price: US$159.00 + shipping
Description: 12mo, pp. 185, [6], '180-211', [4], '[192]-211', [1 (index)]; Elegia Inglese with part-title dated 1776; with copper-engraved frontispiece (included in pagination), engraved vignette to title, 4 illustrations (of which 3 engraved and one woodcut) in text, and a pleasing variety of woodcut and typographic ornaments throughout; foxed and spotted in places, but a very good copy; in contemporary sheep, spine ruled in gilt with gilt red morocco lettering-piece, sewn two-up on 3 sunken cords (of which 2 laced in); a little rubbed and bumped, upper joint split but holding; contemporary ink ownership inscription 'John Thells' to title.An attractive Dublin edition of Gray's poems, joined by two parodies and a 'burlesque ode', and parallel translations of his Elegy written in a Country Churchyard into Italian and Latin. The publisher William Sleater first printed Gray's poems in 1768, with three variant issues; the present edition reuses the sheets of the most extensive and scarcest of the three (ESTC T59849, BL and Cornell only), with a new title, K6 reset, and the addition of 1I6 (Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude, noting that 'Mr. Gray left the following beautiful lyric fragment unfinished at his decease. The supplementary lines, distinguished by Italic character, have been since added by the Rev. Mr. Mason'). ESTC T59850. Language: English
Seller: Bernard Quaritch Ltd ABA ILAB, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$165.36 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Engraved portrait frontispiece (offset to title-page); early full calf, worn, with modern reback, old maroon leather label with gilt titling. Armorial bookplate of Thornton of Brockhall (offset to free endpaper). A very good copy.
Seller: Collinge & Clark, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$225.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Engraved frontis; 4to 11" - 13" tall; 533 pages; 1775 Printed By A. Ward; and Sold By J. Dodsley & J. Todd, York & London. 1st edition. Soundly bound quarto in period quarter calf with leather spine label and marbled paper covered boards. [iv], (1]) - 416; (1-3]) - 111, [2] pp. One blank at front followed by half title; page [112] a contents leaf and [113} errata, followed y 2 blanks. Mild cracking to leather top third of the front joint, but still sound and pliable. Light scuffing and rubbing to leather at spine and tips with expected light shelf rubbing to board surfaces. Cut paper bookplate of Louisa Catherine Sligo mounted to front pastedown. . The 1st edition in well preserved condition. VG . Oversize book likely to require additional charges for expedited or international shipping.
Seller: DogStar Books, Lancaster, PA, U.S.A.
Price: US$235.00 + shipping
Description: Second edition. "To Which Are Prefixed Memoirs of His Life and Writings by W. Mason." With engraved portrait frontispiece of Gray. Contemporary speckled calf, elaborately gilt tooled on spine and with simple gilt beaded border; joints split, but cords holding strong; some wear to corners and spine ends, with loss; light scratches to boards. Neat ink names on endpapers; damp stain to fore edge of frontispiece, just touching image's border; paper clip stain to half title; a few pinpoint wormholes; contents otherwise clean, tight and bright. Very good. (N.B. - Gray's poems, including his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard are on the final 55, seperately paginated, leaves of the text. It is preceded by 416 pages of the Memoirs, which contains biographical information, fragments of writings (poetic, hymnodic and dramatic), and transcriptions of 130 letters from or to Gray, all illustrating his life and works. ).
Seller: Wilfrid M. de Freitas - Bookseller, ABAC, Montreal, QC, Canada
Price: US$235.32 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: [iv], 416, 111, [3] pages. Some small worm holes to the fore margins of pages 105 of the second section through to the end. End papers are browned and stained. A few small tears to the page edges. Bookplate to the front pastedown of Frederick J.O. Montagu. In old leather boards, but with a modern replacement spine. The frontispiece has been trimmed and mounted on the half title page.There is ink offsetting to pages throughout. Light browning to pages throughout. Pages measure approximately 28 x 22 cm. A large and heavy volume
Seller: Stephen Rench, Shipston on Stour, United Kingdom
Price: US$279.85 + shipping
Description: FIRST COLLECTED COMPLETE EDITION. 4to, 266 x 205 mms., pp. [iv], 416, 111 [112 Contents, 113 Errata, 114 - 116 blank], engraved portrait (by James Basire after B. Wilson, contemporary diced calf, gilt spine, black leather label; lower portion of boards damp-stained, affecting lower corner of first five leads, joints cracked, corners worn. A serviceable copy, with the contemporary armorial bookplate of Charles Legh Hoskins Master on the front paste-down end-paper and an appreciative note on the verso of the front free marbled end-paper, but probably in a later hand and not that of Hoskins Master. In his last years, Gray (1716 - 1771) was Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, though he never gave an inaugural lecture. One of his last compositions, published in 1769, was an ode performed at the installation of His Grace Augustus-Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton, Chancellor of the University; this was set to music by the Professor of Music, Dr. John Randal, and included here in the poems, which comprise the shorter part of the volume. Mason included in the volume poems that Gray had not intended to print. Mason composed the memoirs by quoting from selected letters, linked by some narrative, a form of biography that he seems to have inaugurated, or at least made popular.
Seller: John Price Antiquarian Books, ABA, ILAB, LONDON, United Kingdom
Price: US$325.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Quarto; size of binding: 8 ½ in. x 11 1/8 in., half-title; engraved portrait frontispiece of Thomas Gray (Engraved by James Basire; Published [-] March 1st. 1775.); titlepage; Memoirs, with letters: [1]-404; contents of memoirs: pp. [405]-416; Poems: [1-3]-69; Notes: pp. [71-73]-109; Contents of Notes: p. [110]. Bound in full, old sprinkled calf; re-backed with the original spine laid down. Spine features a red morocco title label, gilt-lettered: GRAYS LIFE & POEMS, and a simple design of gilt bands using floral tools, gilt borders on cover edges; lacking the upper, sewn headband; marbled paper endpapers; ink inscription on reverse of front marbled paper endpaper: Anna Godby, from her Aunt Sarah Maltby 1811, and on the upper right on titlepage: S. Godby; tiny wormhole from this corner through p. 64 (and through the front marbled endpaper to the front cover) The best edition, containing Grays Poems and Letters, with Memoirs by William Mason. Lowndes. Original spine leather shows wear, cover corners are bumped, wear to cover edges. Former owner's bookplate on front paste-down. Flyleaves show light dampstaining, ink stains, rustmark on back endpapers in shape of a pair of scissors; text is generally clean. Scan shows the spine & part of front cover. Weight: 3 ½ lbs. Postage may be extra on this item.
Seller: Peter Keisogloff Rare Books, Inc., Brecksville, OH, U.S.A.
Price: US$343.75 + shipping
Description: 4to, pp. [4], 416; 109, [2]; engraved portrait frontispiece (a bit rubbed); contemporary tree calf, red morocco label on gilt-decorated spine; hinges neatly strengthened, small, neat repairs at the bottom of the spine; all else very good and sound. Armorial 18th century bookplate of Sir John Mordaunt. Johnson thought little of the biography which he considered "fit for the second table," but this criticism was largely due to political rather than literary tastes. "Mason took great liberties with the letters, considering them less as biographical documents than as literary material to be edited.The book, however, is in other respects, well done" (see DNB).
Seller: Rulon-Miller Books (ABAA / ILAB), St. Paul, MN, U.S.A.
Price: US$375.00 + shipping
Description: 416 + 110 pp. Engraved frontispiece portrait. 4to, old full calf. The Second Edition. Some scattered very light and inoffensive foxing; joints cracked but cords still holding strong; leather rubbed at edges. Half-title present.
Seller: Jeffrey H. Marks, Rare Books, ABAA, Rochester, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$400.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: [4], 35, [1] leaves, [37]-55, [1] p., [6] leaves of plates : ill. 3/4 Leather with 5 raised bands, gilt lettering and decorations on the spine. Top Edge Gilt. Engraved plates; engraved head- and tail pieces; engraved initials. Odes by Mr. Gray has special half title (p. [37]) There is bowing to the front board, wear to the corners,toning and offsetting of the engravings on the the versos. Overall an attractive, well preserved copy. This is a reissue of the 1765 edition. . It was at Gray's insistence that the word 'Designs' preceded 'Poems' in the title, a reflection of his feeling that the text played a 'subordinate' part. Size: 9 1/2" x13"
Seller: The Chatham Bookseller, Madison, NJ, U.S.A.
Price: US$604.21 + shipping
Description: First edition. 4to. ( 255mm. ) Pp. [4] ,[1] 2 - 416,[3] 4 - 111 [2], [2] ( i.e. sig Greek X1, errata, verso blank ). Plates [1] frontispiece of Gray by Basire after Mason and wilson. Wanting the half title. A copy with generous margins. Frontispiece offset on the the title page. Text sporadically spotted and foxed, and ossasional light pencil marks in the margins. In two parts, ' The poems ' with separate pagination and register. Pp. [73]-111 of the second part contain ' limitations, variations, and additional notes ', with a separate titlepage. Contemporary tree calf , the edges abraded, sometime rebacked, the backstrip with five raised bands, new red title label , and double fillets. New endpapers. Thomas Gray died on 30 July 1771, he left all his books and papers to his friend William Mason, almost at once he started assembling material for this book. He was assisted by one of his York friends Edward Bedingfield who supervised the majority of the book through the press. The book contains Memoirs - five sections of documents, mainly letters , with a commentary , followed by poems which Mason deemed significant to be included in the book. There is one fragment of a poem, p. 236 - 237, which appears in print for the first time - ' Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude ', Mason completes this on p. 78 - 81 of the Poems. William Mason ( 1724 ? - 1797 ) was a poet . Friend of Gray's at Cambridge, he corresponded with Horace Walpole, and agitated for retrenchment and reform. For more details of Mason see ODNB. ESTC T107045. Gaskell 16. PHOTOGRAPHS OF THIS BOOK CAN BE SUPPLIED IF REQUESTED.
Seller: Roger J Treglown, ABA., MILNTHORPE, CUMBR, United Kingdom
GRAY (Thomas). Designs by Mr. R. Bentley, for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray.. J. Dodsley, London, 1775.
Price: US$954.02 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: Six full-page engraved plates, engraved vignette on the title, 13 vignettes in the text, and six engraved initials by Muller and Grignon. 4to (in half sheets). [346 x 235 x 21 mm]. [3], 35 ff, [4], 39-55 pp. Bound in contemporary tree calf, the covers with a gilt roll border, rebacked in matching calf, the smooth spine divided into seven panels by gilt fillets and a wave pallet, lettered in the second on a red label, the others with a vase containing flowers, marbled endleaves, red sprinkled edges. (Corners repaired, edges of the boards worn, scrape mark on front). Without the half-title. A little light dust-soiling but a good copy. Bookplate partly removed and with the signature of T. Lockhart. The six poems are printed and foliated on the recto only. "Odes by Mr. Gray" and the "Explanation of the prints", by Horace Walpole, are printed on both the recto and verso. First published, in three issues, by Robert Dodsley in 1753. It was reprinted, with additions, by his brother James Dodsley in 1765, 1766, 1775 and 1789. The work is "by far the most sophisticated example of English rococo book-illustration" and "perhaps the finest English illustrated book of the century" (Harthan, The History of the Illustrated Book, pp.154-5). Some of the designs, including the famous frontispiece to "Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard", have Gothic features, while "the others display an eclectic melange of currently fashionable decorative motifs, caryatid-draped frontispieces, rococo scrolls and strapwork, an occasional intrusion of chinoiserie, and nude or lightly-clad figures which simultaneously look back to Poussinesque prototypes and forward to Neo-Classicism". Richard Bentley (1708-1782), the son of the great Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, was a protege and friend of Horace Walpole, and a chief designer of Strawberry-Hill.
Seller: George Bayntun ABA ILAB PBFA, Bath, United Kingdom