A Course on Elocution: Together with Two Dissertations on Language; and Some Other Tracts relative to those Subjects.
London: W. Strahan, 1762. Hardcover. Small 4to. Early full calf boards, rebacked in calf with five compartments and gilt spine lettering. xvii, (10pp), 262pp. Very good overall. Early calf boards are worn and edge-darkened, while circa early 20th century rebacked spine is lovely and pristine; endpapers likewise worn and age toned, with front flyleaf tear showing old mend; text block is tight and nice, showing mild age toning throughout and some sections slightly more so, with occasional minor foxing. Item #52895
Tight and nice first edition of the best-known book by the Irish actor, theatre manager and rabid elocution advocate (1719-88) better known as the father of famed playwright Richard B. Sheridan. Intriguing provenance: Front pastedown bears the armorial bookplate of Stephen Herbert Gatty (1849-1922), English barrister who served as Chief Justice of Antigua (1883-85) and later Chief Justice of Gibraltar (1895-1905). This copy bears another Caribbean link, having a gift inscription at top of title page from a William Sowley (1764-1827), a Brit who emigrated to Jamaica as a young man and spent his entire life there. He boldly inscribes and signs in brown ink: "Mole St. Nicholas Sa. Domingo / W Sowley 20th March 1798 / to / Alexr. John Scott / AM." Môle-Saint-Nicolas is a coastal community on the northwestern tip of Haiti and was part of the colony of Saint-Domingue. Scott (1768-1840) was an English clergyman as well as close friend, foreign secretary and personal chaplain to Admiral Horatio Nelson -- he is often remembered for holding the dying Nelson aboard the HMS Victory on October 21,1805 during the Battle of Trafalgar. How Sowley befriended Scott is unknown, but Scott did spent several periods of his life in what was then called the West Indies; he served under Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, and when Parker was named Commander-in-Chief of the West Indies station in 1796, Scott accompanied him there aboard the HMS Queen. He was an accomplished linguist fluent in a half dozen European languages, one reason that Nelson appointed him to his flagship, where his abilities were used to translate newspapers and intercepted letters to gain military intelligence. Nelson's demise was immortalized in Arthur William Devis's 1807 painting "The Death of Nelson," which depicts him lying below decks surrounded by his physician, the ship's captain and other colleagues; Scott appears alongside him to the viewer's left, with his right hand upon Nelson's chest. Tipped to the front flyleaf of this volume is a fine, heavy stock 9½" X 7" steel engraving of this painting (image 6" X 4½") surrounded by a shipboard scene and, at bottom, the battle betweeng the HMS Victory and French and Spanish ships, with a caption below: "Trafalgar, Octr. 21, 1805. / DEATH OF LORD NELSON." Undated, but likely mid-19th century. A nice copy of a quite scarce title with interesting associations.
Price: $1,250.00