Title
Ad C. W. Bampfylde, Arm : Epistola Poetica Familiaris
Book Publisher
Biography Subject
Book Author
Author
Anstey C
Publisher
Date
View Book
vb
vbn
vbtype
vbtown
Plates
Title vignette and 5 copper engravings in the text
Category
UK Topography
Subject
Bath
Topo Subcat
Literature
Books Series
Series Sequence No,
Natural History
Art Reference
Transport
Buildings
Country
County
Bath
Town
Bath
Dept
Departement
Purchase Date
02/25/2008
Bookseller
Source
Ebay
Cost
$34.20
Category
County
Town
PAMPHLET
WAM Off-print
Flags
Volume
Format
Pagination
Maps
Descriptive Comments
Other Notes
Fair or Market
Internet?
Yes
Funding
Estimated Value
Look for better copy?
Binding & Condition
Book plates & labels
Signatures
MS Notes
Provenance Notes
Arch_in_la £28.42 + $11.50
Binding Required?
Yes
!Full calf
Date
Binder
Work Done/Required
Cost/Estimate
Rarity
LHD (formerly Copac)
LHD search
42pp in Latin. Engraved frontis plus 5 engravings in text
Price Guide
Number of copies seen:
3
Target price:
ABE Feb 2008
Ad C. W. Bampfylde, Arm : Epistola Poetica Familiaris......An Election Ball. Anstey (Christopher).
Bookseller: Gibb's Bookshop ABA , ILAB (Manchester, -, United Kingdom) Price:
£ 125.00
Bath. S Hazard & W Hibbart. ,
first edition
., 1776. 4to (25 x 19 cms).
Disbound. 42 pages
. Illustrated with
5 copper engravings and a vignette on the title page
.. the title page continues..in qua continentur Tabulae quinque ab eo excogitatae, quae personas repraesentant Poematis Cujusdam Anglicani, cui titulus. The title page is lightly dusty and the last sheet, page 41-2, is detached with page 42 quite dusty with the date given as 1777. Internally it is a good clean copy of this well known Latin poem.
Ad C.W. Bampfylde, Arm: epistola poetica familiaris ... An election ball. ANSTEY , CHRISTOPHER.
Bookseller: Rulon-Miller Books (ABAA / ILAB) (Saint Paul, MN, U.S.A.) Price:
£ 410.39
impensis auctoris excudebat S. Hazard, Bath, 1776.
First
of at least 6 editions published over a two-year interval, 4to,
pp. 42
;
copper-engraved vignette title-p. and 5 copper-engravings in the text
by Bampfylde, 2 of those in the text with contemporary manuscript attributions; full contemporary paneled calf by C. Hering, London; gilt spine, triple gilt rules on covers; some restoration to spine, joints repaired; good sound copy. Anstey (1724-1805) was an English poet residing for much of his life in Bath, where he wrote The New Bath Guide, the famous series of letters in rhyme which was instantly a success, and which provided Smollett "something of the scheme of Humphrey Clincker" (DNB). An Election Ball is a poem in Latin in the vein of The New Bath Guide, and the main character in the illustrations bears a striking resemblance to Dr. Johnson.
Ebay Feb 2008
C[hristopher] Anstey: Ad C. W. Bampfylde, Arm: Epistola Poetica Familiaris, ... Cui Titulus An ELECTION BALL. Auctore C. Anstey, Arm: [A Familiar Epistle from C. Anstey, Esq. to C. W. Bampfylde, Esq. ... entitled An ELECTION BALL]. Bathoniae [Bath]: S. Hazard [etc.]], 1776. FIRST EDITION. Disbound 4to (23.5 x 18cm); 42 pp; engraved title-page vignette and five in-text engravings by Bampfylde; text in Latin. ESTC T2630.
Remnant of older binding to spine; browning to the title-page and last page, mild toning to the rest of the leaves; small chip from the fore-edge of the title-page; long, closed tears (repaired) to two leaves; offsetting from the engravings; otherwise clean and sound, pages firmly bound together. The price on the title-page has been changed in contemporary manuscript from 5 to 3s. Additionally, two of the plates have attributions ("published as the Act directs Dec. 30: 1776 by [C. Anstey]") added in contemporary manuscript below the image. These ink corrections can also be found in the only other copy we find for sale online, as well as in the UT Harry Ransom Center copy, leading one to suspect that they were added to many, or all, of the copies at the behest of the publisher, Hazard.
Following on the heels of his enormously successful New Bath Guide (see our other auctions for an example), Anstey here indulges in another satire of Bath society. "An Election Ball consists of a series of letters from Mr. Inkle to his wife Dinah ... describing a 1775 ball given to celebrate Sir John Sebright’s reelection to Parliament as member for Bath. Inkle is scarcely a member of polite society, but he is an ambitious thruster and would very much like to become one. He brings along his daughter Margery (“Madge”), who has her own aspirations to become fashionable, with disastrous consequences..." (Dana F. Sutton: Epistola Poetica Familiaris, A Hypertext Critical Edition. University of California, Irvine, 2006). The main character pictured in the plates bears an uncommon resemblance to Samuel Johnson. An English translation was published later the same year and went through several printings.
Christopher Anstey (1724 –1805), English satirist, MP, and poet, is most famous for his The New Bath Guide, or Memoirs of the Blunderhead Family (1766), a humorous collection of "poetic epistles" that influenced Smollett, Thackeray and others. He is reported to have been an amiable fellow, popular with his peers. In a letter of 1773, Horace Walpole wrote: "...you know I shun authors, and would never have been one myself, if it obliged me to keep such bad company... [but] I should like to be intimate with Mr. Anstey... I have no thirst to know the rest of my contemporaries, from the absurd bombast of Dr. Johnson down to the silly Dr. Goldsmith..."
I won for $55.89 = £28.42. $11.50 p&p
ABE Feb 2008
Ad C. W. Bampfylde, Arm : Epistola Poetica Familiaris......An Election Ball. Anstey (Christopher).
Bookseller: Gibb's Bookshop ABA , ILAB (Manchester, -, United Kingdom) Price: £ 125.00
Bath. S Hazard & W Hibbart. , first edition., 1776. 4to (25 x 19 cms). Disbound. 42 pages. Illustrated with 5 copper engravings and a vignette on the title page.. the title page continues..in qua continentur Tabulae quinque ab eo excogitatae, quae personas repraesentant Poematis Cujusdam Anglicani, cui titulus. The title page is lightly dusty and the last sheet, page 41-2, is detached with page 42 quite dusty with the date given as 1777. Internally it is a good clean copy of this well known Latin poem.
Ad C.W. Bampfylde, Arm: epistola poetica familiaris ... An election ball. ANSTEY , CHRISTOPHER.
Bookseller: Rulon-Miller Books (ABAA / ILAB) (Saint Paul, MN, U.S.A.) Price: £ 410.39
impensis auctoris excudebat S. Hazard, Bath, 1776. First of at least 6 editions published over a two-year interval, 4to, pp. 42; copper-engraved vignette title-p. and 5 copper-engravings in the text by Bampfylde, 2 of those in the text with contemporary manuscript attributions; full contemporary paneled calf by C. Hering, London; gilt spine, triple gilt rules on covers; some restoration to spine, joints repaired; good sound copy. Anstey (1724-1805) was an English poet residing for much of his life in Bath, where he wrote The New Bath Guide, the famous series of letters in rhyme which was instantly a success, and which provided Smollett "something of the scheme of Humphrey Clincker" (DNB). An Election Ball is a poem in Latin in the vein of The New Bath Guide, and the main character in the illustrations bears a striking resemblance to Dr. Johnson.
Ebay Feb 2008
C[hristopher] Anstey: Ad C. W. Bampfylde, Arm: Epistola Poetica Familiaris, ... Cui Titulus An ELECTION BALL. Auctore C. Anstey, Arm: [A Familiar Epistle from C. Anstey, Esq. to C. W. Bampfylde, Esq. ... entitled An ELECTION BALL]. Bathoniae [Bath]: S. Hazard [etc.]], 1776. FIRST EDITION. Disbound 4to (23.5 x 18cm); 42 pp; engraved title-page vignette and five in-text engravings by Bampfylde; text in Latin. ESTC T2630.
Remnant of older binding to spine; browning to the title-page and last page, mild toning to the rest of the leaves; small chip from the fore-edge of the title-page; long, closed tears (repaired) to two leaves; offsetting from the engravings; otherwise clean and sound, pages firmly bound together. The price on the title-page has been changed in contemporary manuscript from 5 to 3s. Additionally, two of the plates have attributions ("published as the Act directs Dec. 30: 1776 by [C. Anstey]") added in contemporary manuscript below the image. These ink corrections can also be found in the only other copy we find for sale online, as well as in the UT Harry Ransom Center copy, leading one to suspect that they were added to many, or all, of the copies at the behest of the publisher, Hazard.
Following on the heels of his enormously successful New Bath Guide (see our other auctions for an example), Anstey here indulges in another satire of Bath society. "An Election Ball consists of a series of letters from Mr. Inkle to his wife Dinah ... describing a 1775 ball given to celebrate Sir John Sebright’s reelection to Parliament as member for Bath. Inkle is scarcely a member of polite society, but he is an ambitious thruster and would very much like to become one. He brings along his daughter Margery (“Madge”), who has her own aspirations to become fashionable, with disastrous consequences..." (Dana F. Sutton: Epistola Poetica Familiaris, A Hypertext Critical Edition. University of California, Irvine, 2006). The main character pictured in the plates bears an uncommon resemblance to Samuel Johnson. An English translation was published later the same year and went through several printings.
Christopher Anstey (1724 –1805), English satirist, MP, and poet, is most famous for his The New Bath Guide, or Memoirs of the Blunderhead Family (1766), a humorous collection of "poetic epistles" that influenced Smollett, Thackeray and others. He is reported to have been an amiable fellow, popular with his peers. In a letter of 1773, Horace Walpole wrote: "...you know I shun authors, and would never have been one myself, if it obliged me to keep such bad company... [but] I should like to be intimate with Mr. Anstey... I have no thirst to know the rest of my contemporaries, from the absurd bombast of Dr. Johnson down to the silly Dr. Goldsmith..."
I won for $55.89 = £28.42. $11.50 p&p