Lot 60

Forbes, James.

Estimate

1,200 - 1,800 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Oriental Memoirs. London: Printed for the author by T. Bensley, 1813

first edition, 4 volumes, 4to (300 x 233mm.), half-titles, 92 (of 93) engraved or lithographed plates, many coloured by hand, 4pp. 'Directions to the Bookbinder' and errata leaf at end of vol.4, contemporary diced russia gilt, lacking plate 82* (as often; issued to replace plate 80, see plate list), plain plates somewhat spotted, upper cover of vol.1 detached, joints splitting

Provenance

Robert Hurst Esq. M.P., Horsham Park, June 1824, red morocco book label in each volume; thence by descent.

Robert Hurst (1750-1843) was a barrister of 'great experience and ability' who was successively Member of Parliament for Steyning and Horsham (1812-1829), and was retained by the 11th Duke of Norfolk for his electoral ventures from 1786. Hurst vacated his seat in April 1829 after the Catholic Emancipation Bill to make room for the Duke of Norfolk's son Henry Charles Howard, Earl of Surrey, who became eligible to sit in the House of Commons and was duly "elected" in Hurst's place. 'Hurst was also a trustee of the Shelley estates and had purchased Horsham Park in c.1800, although the Hurst family had held land in the parish possibly since the mid thirteenth century. Robert's son Robert Henry, also M.P. for Horsham (1832-1847, d. 1857), left the country to escape his creditors in 1845, and was succeeded by his son, another Robert Henry, who was also M.P. for Horsham (1865-1875), and who wielded a great influence in the town until his death in 1905. His younger son Col. A. R. Hurst sold Horsham Park house and grounds in 1928.' (History of the County of Sussex: Vol.6 Part 2 (Oxford, 1986), [cf. Albery, W. A Parliamentary History of the Ancient Borough of Horsham 1295-1885 (London, 1927); Thorne, R.G. (ed.) History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820 (London, 1986)]

Literature

Abbey, Travel 436; Anker 148; Fine Bird Books p.75; Nissen ZBI 1409; Wood p.345;

Catalogue Note

The work includes many finely hand-coloured plates of birds and other natural history subjects.