K. Tomlinson. The Art of Dancing...In Two Books...The Second Edition, 1744

Tomlinson, Kellom

The Art of Dancing Explained by Reading and Figures...In Two Books...The Second Edition, London: author, 1744

two parts in one volume, [23], 4-159, [1] pages, 4to (28.6 x 23.5cm), printed dedication, list of subscribers, preface and contents, 37 fine engraved plates, mostly of dancers, by Seale, Vandergucht, Smith, Fletcher, Bickham and others, engraved frontispiece portrait (dated 1754) by Merellon la Cave after Van Bleeck, Dolmetsch Library stamp and pencil shelfmark ("II E 33, 1") to verso of title, eighteenth-century half calf, lacking leaf before title,browning to title and following leaf,upper cover detached

VERY RARE. Only 5 copies are recorded in ESTC (3 in Scotland and 2 in California), and we have traced only four appearances at auction in the last half century.

Tomlinson's The Art of Dancing (first published in 1735) is notable for its 37 exquisitely engraved plates, many of which display the celebrated English dancing-master's innovative method of depicting the dances, namely by combining illustration of the dancers themselves with the Feuillet dance notation. The first book (or part), as the notes on the reverse of the title explain, 'treats of the beautiful Attitudes or Postures of Standing, the different Positions from whence the Steps of Dancing are to be taken and performed; and likewise of the Manner of Walking gracefully...'; the second book deals chiefly with the minuet.

LITERATURE:

ESTC N16440; RISM Écrits, p.836