BLAIRADAM PRESS
£480
Auction: 1 February 2005 at 11:00 GMT
Description
[HUME David]
Two short essays on the study of history, and on general reading with a preface and a concluding note. The gift of a grandfather ... [bound with] Sequel to the Gift of a grandfather ... 2 works in 1 volume, contemporary half calf, cloth boards, rubbed, 8vo., privately printed at Blair Adam Press, 1836 [-39]
Note: Located near Kelty on the border between Fife and Perth and Kinross, Blairadam was the home of William Adam (1751-1839), politician and Lord Chief Commissioner of the Scottish Jury Court. This product of Adam's private press, written in substantial part by Adam himself, reflects the highly cultivated atmosphere of Blairadam which had become, through the Blairadam Club, which gathered at the house on Friday evenings, a centre of social and intellectual activity involving well known figures of the day such as Sir Walter Scott. Adam was, too, an early member of Scott's other great enthusiasm, the Bannatyne Club, and for which he jointly edited a volume in 1834. A note pasted in at the front of the book draws the readers attention to the errors in the book which are "naturally to be expected in the first attempt of a private press". The errors are corrected in MS
Provenance: With the signature of John Hill Burton, the historian and bibliophile, and the bookplate of Maxtone Graham of Cultoquhey