[Gay, John.]

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

[Gay, John.]
A panegyrical epistle to Mr. Thomas Snow, goldsmith, near Temple-Barr: occasion'd by his buying and selling of the third subscriptions, taken in by the directors of the South-Sea Company, at a thousand per cent. For Bernard Lintot, 1721.
paper

Folio, first edition, 5pp., old wrappers, preserved in a half dark blue morocco slipcase

Literature

Foxon G64; Rothschild 921; CBEL II, 498

Condition

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, when appropriate.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

The uncommon first edition of Gay's ironic meditation in verse of his own involvement in the South Sea Bubble:

"Why did 'Change-Alley waste thy precious hours,
Among the fools who gap'd for golden show'rs?
No wonder, if we found some poets there,
Who live on fancy, and can feed on air;
No wonder, they were caught by South-Sea schemes,
Who ne'er enjoy'd a guinea, but in dreams;
No wonder, they their third subscriptions sold,
For millions of imaginary gold."

Gay had earned more than a thousand pounds from the publication of his Poems on Several Occasions in 1720, and his friends, especially Pope and Swift, advised him to invest the money prudently. Instead Gay put his funds into South Sea shares, and before long he judged himself worth, on paper, twenty thousand; his friends begged him to sell, at least as much, said Elijah Fenton, as would make him "sure of a clean shirt and a shoulder of mutton every day." But Gay held on, and lost everything.