(London Society, High and Low) | London social mores both high and low

(London Society, High and Low)

A View of London and Westminster: Or, The Town Spy … by a German Gentleman. London: T. Warner, 1725 — Low-Life: Or One Half of the World ... With an Address to the Ingenious and Ingenuous Mr. Hogarth ... The Third Edition. London: John Lever, 1764

2 works in one volume, 8vo (197 x 127 mm). Both volumes with moderate browning, edges darkened with occasional soiling or staining. View of London: lacks half-title. Low-Life: Engraved frontispiece, publisher's advertisement on O4v. Contemporary calf; worn, boards detached (quire O of Low-Life still attached to lower board). Brown cloth slipcase.

The second work, attributed to Thomas Legg, provides an hour-by-hour account of the dregs of city society: the poor, the debauched, the degenerate, whores, vagabonds, gallants, gamblers, cheats, sharpers, etc., in their varied habitats: the streets, gaming houses, taverns, prisons, etc., achieving a Hogarthian effect. With the bookplate of William H. Woodin, who served as the Secretary of Treasury under Franklin Roosevelt in 1933.

REFERENCE:

ESTC N46164; T114106

PROVENANCE:

William Hartmann Woodin (bookplate on front pastedown)