(Parry, J., and Antonio Benedictus van Assen) | One of the best remarkable character books

(Parry, J., and Antonio Benedictus van Assen)

Extraordinary Characters of the Nineteenth Century. London: J. Parry, 1805

4to (265 x 203 mm). Frontispiece and 18 handcolored engraved plates, engraved text; foxing, soiling, offsetting. Contemporary half speckled calf and marbled paper-covered boards, spine with raised bands in six compartments, second with red gilt morocco lettering-piece; upper board detached, lower board nearly so, overall rubbed with some loss. 

Charming both verbally and artistically.

The author's intention was to describe persons not usually covered in standard biographical dictionaries. Here he describes "their different avocations, propensities, humors, &c. exhibiting in many cases, a surprising dereliction to situation, and circumstances, such as lofty men with shallow brains, dwarfs with aspiring notions, strong men with weak intellects, and beggars setting up for Lawgivers …" (Introduction).  

Rare.

REFERENCE:

Not in Abbey or Tooley