[Cave, Edward, and others]

volumes 1-58 bound in 64 volumes, together with 2 index ("to the first fifty-six volumes", 1731-1786) volumes, 8vo, some title pages for individual numbers, engraved plates and maps, many folding, contemporary panelled calf with decorative floral borders and additional floral tooling (earlier volumes speckled calf), spines in six compartments numbered in gilt and with red spine labels lettered in gilt, speckled edges; 

[with:]  The Gentleman's Magazine: And Historical Chronicle. For the Year MDCCXCIX. Printed by John Nichols...and sold by Elizabeth Newbery, 1799, volume 69 bound in 2 volumes, 8vo, engraved plates (one folding), contemporary half calf over marbled boards, speckled edges; sold as a periodical, not subject to return, rubbed (68)

Sir William Forbes, bookplates

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.

A GOOD SET. Established by Cave and edited by him under the pseudonym "Sylvanus Urban", The Gentleman's Magazine rapidly became "the most popular and enduring journal of the century" (ESTC), resulting in numerous reprints to meet demand.

As such, identifying specific editions remains challenging. Even limited to only the years of Cave's proprietorship, "there are 24 annual volumes, comprising 312 separate numbers, some printed at least nine times, all occurring in states differing in every set, and many thereafter confused in mixtures of several sets" (Todd, A Bibliographical Account of The Gentleman's Magazine, 1731-1754 (1965), p.81).