- 44
[Bible]
Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 GBP
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Description
- A Curious Hieroglyphick Bible; or, select passages in the Old and New Testaments, represented with Emblematic Figures for the Amusement of Youth. Printed for T. Hodgson, 1785
- Paper
12mo, third edition, PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY [?] ALEXANDER BOSWELL ("A | Present from | James Boswell Esqr | To | His eldest Son | Alexander | 1785") on the front free endpaper, ADDITIONALLY INSCRIBED BY ALEXANDER TO JAMES FORBES ("to Mr James Forbes | from his affecte friend | Alexr Boswell") on verso of the front free endpaper, frontispiece, numerous illustrations, original pictorial printed boards, boards worn, spine perished, inner hinges split, occasional tears
Provenance
The Forbes Baronetcy was created in 1626 for Sir William Forbes (d. circa 1650) by James VI in the Barontage of Nova Scotia. The majority of the works offered here were acquired by the sixth Baronet, also William (1739-1806), who added Pitsligo to his title in 1781. He was an eminent Scottish banker and benefactor, good friend of James Boswell and Samuel Johnson (see lots 45-46), and finally succeeded in recovering the Pitsligo estates forfeited after the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. His son William, the seventh baronet, beat Sir Walter Scott to the hand of the renowned beauty Williamina Belsches Stuart (1776-1810), and it was with their marriage that the family moved to her family seat, Fettercairn House in Kincardineshire, Aberdeenshire.
Literature
ESTC T168839
Catalogue Note
CHARMING ASSOCIATION COPY, LINKING THE TWO FAMILIES OF FORBES AND BOSWELL. Boswell's son Alexander, the eldest of his surviving sons, was born in 1775 to the delight of his father. This children's bible was given to Alexander at the age of 10, who then in turn gifted the book to James Forbes, who was two and half years younger and the fourth of the thirteen children of Sir William Forbes (see lot 45).