Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$42.00 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: Volume III. This hard cover is in FAIR CONDITION. 316pp bound in tan paper over boards, with deckled page edges. Spine covering cracked with pieces missing, binding loose, with occasional water stain and occasional light foxing. Covers still attached with all pages intact. Copius notes and biographical illustrations by Malone.
Seller: Monroe Bridge Books, MABA Member, Houlton, ME, U.S.A.
Price: US$174.99 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Five Volume Set; 5 vols pages; FIve volumes in full sheepskin, covers in a decorative "tree" pattern, flat spines paneled with pairs of gilt rules, red and black leather labels, lettered in gilt with the titles and volume numbers respectively, in the second and fourth panels. Some wear and rubbing, all covers soundly attached, small pieces missing from the spines of volumes II and IV, other volumes with just trifling losses at the head of the spines. Ink signatures in each volume by J[ohn] H. Edmonds [a leading Utica, NY lawyer], dated March, 1849 -- on the front paste-down endpapers. An interesting early American edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson, printed in Bellows Falls, Vermont -- the site of the first bridge over the Connecticut River (in 1785). A paper mill was one of the first commercial enterprises in the town. The firm of printers who produced these volumes was "Blake, Cutler and Co." Blake was Bill Blake, proprietor of the first newspaper to be published in the town of Rockingham -- 'The Vermont Intelligencer and Bellows Falls Advertiser' (founded January 1, 1817). This newspaper was established, owned and published by Bill Blake & Company, who occupied a building upon the corner of Westminster and Mill streets. They carried on an extensive printing and publishing business; also a book bindery and a wholesale and retail book store. In addition to these, they owned a paper-mill where they manufactured both writing and printing paper. Blake's company became Blake, Cutler & Company, in which form the firm appears on these volumes, and later James I. Cutler & Company. Sadly, their paper-mill was burned on July 11, 1846, and the printing office building on March 14, 1860. Their handsome Boswell's Life of Johnson is the second Boston edition of this greatest of all biographies. [The first had the imprint: "Boston: Published by W. Andrews and L. Blake. Greenough and Stebbins, printers., 1807." That 1807 edition appeared in three volumes, and the title page stated: "First American from the fifth London edition."] This Bellows Falls edition can be counted as the second Boston edition, for, while the imprint of the first volume reads: "Bellows Falls, Vt. : Printed by Blake, Cutler and Co. for Charles Ewer and Timothy Bedlington., 1824" -- the imprint varies on the title pages of the rest of the set. Volumes 2-5 have title pages reading: "Boston: Published by Charles Ewer and Timothy Bedlington. 1824. Each of these final four volumes have the printer's slug of "Blake, Cutler & Co. printers, Bellows Falls, Vt." on the versos of title pages. Assuming that Blake and Cutler used their own paper for these volumes, the present condition speaks well for the quality of their product. The text sheets are clean, crisp and almost entirely free from foxing. There are no vertical chain lines, although there are faint, closely-spaced horizontal lines from the screen on which the paper was made, it is essentially "wove" paper, rather than laid. (The endpapers and binder's blanks are foxed). Half titles present in each volume. Volume I has an engraved portrait of Dr. Johnson as frontispiece -- signed: "Bowen prt." The frontispiece plate in volume II is a folding engraved "Fac Similies of Dr. Johnson"s Hand Writing." The frontispiece plate in volume III is a folding engraved "Round Robin Addressed to Samuel Johnson, L.L.D." Gathered in sixes. Pagination: Vol. 1: xxxiii, [1], 302 p., [1] leaf of plates; v. 2: [4], 318 p., [1] folded leaf of plates; v. 3: [4], 316 p., [1] folded leaf of plates; v. 4: [4], 348 p.; v. 5: [4], 332 p.Errors in paging: v. 1, p. 221 misnumbered 218; v. 3, p. 69-71 misnumbered 79-81."Chronological catalogue of the prose works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D."--v. 1, p. [xxv]-xxxiii.Includes index. OCLC: 3227954. There are two other OCLC Numbers: (including 191251289 citing a single location only: the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts, whose copy lacks a lower cover for volume I. There is also a separate number for the National Library of Scotland set). Shoemaker 15528
Seller: Antiquarian Bookshop, Washington, DC, U.S.A.
Price: US$250.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: . NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED: THE WHOLE EXHIBITING A VIEW OF LITERATURE AND LITERARY MEN IN GREAT BRITAIN, FOR NEAR HALF A CENTURY DURING WHICH HE FLOURISHED. A New Edition. Copious Notes and Biographical Illustrations, By Malone. In Five Volumes; Printed By Blake, Cutler and Co. for Charles Ewer and Timothy Bedlington. Bellows Falls, VT. 1824. 5 volume set are hard-bound in 1/2 leather with marbled paper covered boards, with gilt stamped numbers and gilt stamped red leather labels on the spines - scuffed and soiled, with edge-wear and rubbing to the joints, corners and spine-ends. Volume I front board barely attached - contents are bright and legible, but with scattered foxing and toning throughout. Portrait frontispiece in Volume 1, and a folding plate in volumes 2 & 3. Volume I is a Vermont Imprint, Published in Bellows Falls, VT., 1824., with the rest of the volumes printed in Bellows Falls, VT, but have a Boston, MA imprint.
Seller: Hoffman Books, ABAA, IOBA, Columbus, OH, U.S.A.
Price: US$300.00 + shipping
Description: A New Edition. Frontispiece Vol. 1. 5 vols. 8vo. Original boards, uncut, one joint off, spines rubbed with loss, else Good Frontispiece Vol. 1. 5 vols. 8vo
Seller: James Cummins Bookseller, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$1320.34 + shipping
Description: Finely bound all in modern aniline calf over marble boards. Raised bands with dark morocco gilt-blocked labels. Spine compartments uniformly tooled in gilt. An exceptional set - scans and additional bibliographic detail on request. ; 0 pages; Complete in 5 volumes. Physical desc. : 5 v. : facsim. , port. ; 22 cm. Subject: Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784. Biography - Lexicographers. Related names; Malone, Edmond, 1741-1812. Dedicated to Sir Joshua Reynolds. Includes bibliographical references and index. 3 Kg.
Seller: MW Books Ltd., Galway, Ireland
Price: US$1444.00 + shipping
Description: Finely bound all in modern aniline calf over marble boards. Raised bands with dark morocco gilt-blocked labels. Spine compartments uniformly tooled in gilt. An exceptional set - scans and additional bibliographic detail on request. ; 0 pages; Complete in 5 volumes. Physical desc. : 5 v. : facsim. , port. ; 22 cm. Subject: Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784. Biography - Lexicographers. Related names; Malone, Edmond, 1741-1812. Dedicated to Sir Joshua Reynolds. Includes bibliographical references and index. 3 Kg.
Seller: MW Books, New York, NY, U.S.A.