Pope, Alexander

Estimate

3,000 - 4,000 USD

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Description

The Works of Alexander Pope. London: W. Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, 1717
Ink, paper and cow

4to (11 3/8 x 8 3/4 in.; 296 x 222 mm). Half-title, title printed in red and black, engraved initials, head- and tailpieces. Lacking portrait. Some light spotting. Eighteenth-century dark pink morocco, gilt elaborated ornamental frame, gilt ornament on spine. Extremities rubbed, spine faded.

Provenance

George Simon, Earl of Harcourt (bookplate)

Literature

Griffith 79-81; Rothschild 1585

Catalogue Note

First edition, first issue (without Tonson's name), large-paper copy.

First collected edition of Pope's works, one of the fine copies on thicker paper. The Works includes eleven pieces printed for the first time, including Eloisa to Abelard, Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady, and the Epistles to Martha Blount.

Simon Harcourt (1684–1720), father of the first earl of the same name, was a close friend of Pope, hence the rich binding on this copy. (The family still retain a signed presentation copy, in folio, similarly bound.)