Potter & Potter Auctions
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Fine Books & Manuscripts

Sat, Oct 10, 2020 12:00PM EDT
Lot 457

BOSWELL, James (1740?1795). The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL....

Estimate: $400 - $600

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $5
$30 $10
$100 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $200
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
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$50,000 $5,000
$100,000 $10,000
BOSWELL, James (1740?1795). The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., Including a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides. London: John Murray, 1831. 5 volumes. 8vo. Edited ?with numerous additions and notes? by John Wilson Crocker. FIRST CROCKER EDITION. 5 engraved portrait frontispieces (a bit of offsetting from plates to text with a bit of pale foxing), one additional engraved portrait of John Wilson Crocker inserted facing preface in Vol. I, double-page map, and double-page Round Robin. Period full crimson straight grain morocco (probably bound by Charles Lewis), covers stamped in gilt with a central crest and arms of Robert Hobart Fitzgibbon (3rd Earl of Clare), twice ruled in gilt, spines gilt titled with gilt framing, all edges gilt, turn-ins with gilt filets, pale yellow endpapers (spines lightly darkened, bookplates of George Pitt; otherwise a tight and clean set). ?The publication of this remarkable edition opens an entirely new era in the history of Boswell?s book? (Pottle). Provenance: From the private library of a local Chicago collector, part one.