Title
The New Bath Guide (1st no epilogue)
Book Publisher
Biography Subject
Book Author
Author
Anstey C
Publisher
J. Dodsley
Date
View Book
vb
vbn
vbtype
vbtown
Plates
Category
UK Topography
Subject
Bath
Topo Subcat
Anstey's New Bath Guide
Books Series
Anstey's New Bath Guide
Series Sequence No,
1766
Natural History
Art Reference
Transport
Buildings
Country
County
Bath
Town
Bath
Dept
Departement
Purchase Date
03/01/2008
Bookseller
Source
Kempsford Ximenes
Cost
$60.00
Category
County
Town
BOOK
WAM Off-print
Flags
Volume
Format
Pagination
J.Dodsley etc etc 104
Maps
Descriptive Comments
Other Notes
Fair or Market
ABE
Internet?
Yes
Funding
Early-Impression
Estimated Value
Look for better copy?
Binding & Condition
Book plates & labels
Signatures
MS Notes
Provenance Notes
Binding Required?
Yes
!Full calf
Date
Binder
Work Done/Required
Cost/Estimate
Rarity
LHD (formerly Copac)
LHD search
Early editions lack the epilogue
Price Guide
Number of copies seen:
2
Target price:
ABE Feb 2002:
[ANSTEY (Christopher)]: THE NEW BATH GUIDE: OR, MEMOIRS OF THE B---R---D [BLUNDERHEAD] FAMILY. IN A SERIES OF POETICAL EPISTLES.
[Cambridge]: sold by J.Dodsley; J.Wilson & J.Fell; J.Almon .. 1766. First edition: the first issue (without the later additional epilogue). The original appearance of the celebrated and immensely popular satirical verses of Christopher Anstey (1724-1805) - "So much wit, so much humour, fun, and poetry, so much originality, never met together before" (Walpole). The old Etonian Anstey's ridicule and parody of the freaks of fashion had the same kind of immediate success (presumably with the same audience) as his contemporary Laurence Sterne. He later moved to Bath, where he lived for the last thirty years of his life. The book was endlessly reprinted in smaller format editions, but never in the spacious quarto of the first edition.
Post 4to. 104pp.
Bound in neat (twentieth century) cloth-backed drab boards; boards a little marked and spotted; first and last leaves a little discoloured; unobtrusive two-inch split/tear to centre of title-page; a little spotting and a few faint creases, but a good and well-margined
copy.
Price:
£ 350.00
Presented by ASH RARE BOOKS (ABA, ILAB), London, ., United Kingdom
ABE July 2006
The new Bath guide
Anstey, Christopher
Bookseller: Ximenes Rare Books Inc., ABAA, ABA, ILAB
(Kempsford, Gloucestershire, , United Kingdom) Price:
£ 75.00
Book Description: London 1766., 1766. The new Bath guide: or, memoirs of the B-----r---d family. In a series of poetical epistles. London: sold by J. Dodsley; J. Wilson & J. Fell; and J. Almon; W. Frederick (Bath); W. Jackson (Oxford); T. Flftcher [sic] & F. Hudson (Cambridge); W. Smith (Dublin); and the booksellers of Bristol, York, and Edinburgh, 1766.
104 pp. 4to, disbound. First edition.
These verse epistles of the Blunderhead family, satirizing the fashions of the day, proved enormously popular; more than thirty editions had appeared by the end of the century. Corners of the title-page stained from an old binding, otherwise in very good condition; some sets of these sheets were re-issued with an epilogue, which extended the text to 130 pp. CBEL II, 638.
Mar 2008 Negotiated price of £60
Ebay Feb 2008
arc_in_la (USA)
Christopher ANSTEY - NEW BATH GUIDE - Satire - FE 1766
Christopher Anstey:] The New Bath Guide: or, Memoirs of the B—r—d Family. In a Series of Poetical Epistles. London: Sold by J. Dodsley; J. Wilson & J. Fell; and J. Almon, London; W. Frederick, at Bath; W. Jackson, at Oxford; T. Fletcher & F. Hodson, at Cambridge; W. Smith, at Dublin; and the booksellers of Bristol, York, and Edinburgh, 1766. FIRST EDITION. Hardcover 4to (26.5 x 18.5cm) in modern marbled boards with a morocco spine label stamped in gilt; 104 pp. (no half-title called for). ESTC N5216.
First edition, first issue, without the epilogue added in later printings. A nice fresh example of this genuine 18th-century literary sensation, a sparkling, witty, epistolary satire in verse recounting the adventures of the hapless Blunderhead Family among the ton and "freaks of fashion" of Bath. It was an immediate success, praised by the likes of Walpole and Gray, and eventually went through over forty printings, influencing the work of many others (among them Tobias Smollett, who drew on it for his Humphrey Clinker).
Careful archival repair to the spine edge of the title-page; smaller repair to short tear at the spine edge of the last two leaves; small spot to the bottom fore-corner of the first 3-4 leaves; a few other small spots to the margins; otherwise very clean and bright and firmly bound in a clean, sharp, striking modern binding with a touch of bumping to the corners and light wear to the edges and hinges. A very handsome copy.
Made famous overnight by The New Bath Guide, Christopher Anstey (1724 –1805), English satirist, MP and poet, eventually moved to the city he had immortalized, residing there for the last thirty years of his life. He produced another title of note, The Election Ball (see our other auctions for an example), and numerous works which are now all but forgotten, before ending his days as a country squire at the age of eighty. 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..."
Sold £104 ($205). I was the under bidder
ABE Feb 2002:
[ANSTEY (Christopher)]: THE NEW BATH GUIDE: OR, MEMOIRS OF THE B---R---D [BLUNDERHEAD] FAMILY. IN A SERIES OF POETICAL EPISTLES.
[Cambridge]: sold by J.Dodsley; J.Wilson & J.Fell; J.Almon .. 1766. First edition: the first issue (without the later additional epilogue). The original appearance of the celebrated and immensely popular satirical verses of Christopher Anstey (1724-1805) - "So much wit, so much humour, fun, and poetry, so much originality, never met together before" (Walpole). The old Etonian Anstey's ridicule and parody of the freaks of fashion had the same kind of immediate success (presumably with the same audience) as his contemporary Laurence Sterne. He later moved to Bath, where he lived for the last thirty years of his life. The book was endlessly reprinted in smaller format editions, but never in the spacious quarto of the first edition. Post 4to. 104pp. Bound in neat (twentieth century) cloth-backed drab boards; boards a little marked and spotted; first and last leaves a little discoloured; unobtrusive two-inch split/tear to centre of title-page; a little spotting and a few faint creases, but a good and well-margined
copy. Price: £ 350.00 Presented by ASH RARE BOOKS (ABA, ILAB), London, ., United Kingdom
ABE July 2006
The new Bath guide
Anstey, Christopher
Bookseller: Ximenes Rare Books Inc., ABAA, ABA, ILAB
(Kempsford, Gloucestershire, , United Kingdom) Price: £ 75.00
Book Description: London 1766., 1766. The new Bath guide: or, memoirs of the B-----r---d family. In a series of poetical epistles. London: sold by J. Dodsley; J. Wilson & J. Fell; and J. Almon; W. Frederick (Bath); W. Jackson (Oxford); T. Flftcher [sic] & F. Hudson (Cambridge); W. Smith (Dublin); and the booksellers of Bristol, York, and Edinburgh, 1766. 104 pp. 4to, disbound. First edition. These verse epistles of the Blunderhead family, satirizing the fashions of the day, proved enormously popular; more than thirty editions had appeared by the end of the century. Corners of the title-page stained from an old binding, otherwise in very good condition; some sets of these sheets were re-issued with an epilogue, which extended the text to 130 pp. CBEL II, 638.
Mar 2008 Negotiated price of £60
Ebay Feb 2008
arc_in_la (USA)
Christopher ANSTEY - NEW BATH GUIDE - Satire - FE 1766
Christopher Anstey:] The New Bath Guide: or, Memoirs of the B—r—d Family. In a Series of Poetical Epistles. London: Sold by J. Dodsley; J. Wilson & J. Fell; and J. Almon, London; W. Frederick, at Bath; W. Jackson, at Oxford; T. Fletcher & F. Hodson, at Cambridge; W. Smith, at Dublin; and the booksellers of Bristol, York, and Edinburgh, 1766. FIRST EDITION. Hardcover 4to (26.5 x 18.5cm) in modern marbled boards with a morocco spine label stamped in gilt; 104 pp. (no half-title called for). ESTC N5216.
First edition, first issue, without the epilogue added in later printings. A nice fresh example of this genuine 18th-century literary sensation, a sparkling, witty, epistolary satire in verse recounting the adventures of the hapless Blunderhead Family among the ton and "freaks of fashion" of Bath. It was an immediate success, praised by the likes of Walpole and Gray, and eventually went through over forty printings, influencing the work of many others (among them Tobias Smollett, who drew on it for his Humphrey Clinker).
Careful archival repair to the spine edge of the title-page; smaller repair to short tear at the spine edge of the last two leaves; small spot to the bottom fore-corner of the first 3-4 leaves; a few other small spots to the margins; otherwise very clean and bright and firmly bound in a clean, sharp, striking modern binding with a touch of bumping to the corners and light wear to the edges and hinges. A very handsome copy.
Made famous overnight by The New Bath Guide, Christopher Anstey (1724 –1805), English satirist, MP and poet, eventually moved to the city he had immortalized, residing there for the last thirty years of his life. He produced another title of note, The Election Ball (see our other auctions for an example), and numerous works which are now all but forgotten, before ending his days as a country squire at the age of eighty. 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..."
Sold £104 ($205). I was the under bidder