RALEIGH Sir Walter
£260
Auction: 1 February 2005 at 11:00 GMT
Description
The poems ... now first collected ... 1st edition thus, titlepage in red and black, mounted engraved vignette on the titlepage, original grey boards, printed paper label, fore-edges uncut, extremities rubbed, label chipped, endpapers and titlepage a little spotted, 4to., [Ickham]: Printed at the Private Press of Lee Priory by Johnson and Warwick, 1813
Note: Lowndes XI.220 No 3. Limited to one hundred copies and an early product from the private press of the editor of early English literature and genealogist, Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges at his home in Kent, Lee Priory.
" In 1813 a private printing press had been established at Lee Priory by a compositor and a pressman (Johnson and Warwick). Brydges engaged to provide ‘copy’ gratuitously, and the printers undertook to pay all expenses, making what profits they could. The editions of the various works issued from the press were purposely limited to a small number of copies, and were sold by the printers to book-collectors at high prices. In spite of these arrangements, considerable expenses were incurred by Brydges and his son, though the press was not finally given up till about December 1822." (DNB)