Lot 264
Dentistry - Allen, Charles
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 6 May 2015 at 12:00 BST
Description
[The Operator for the Teeth] Curious observations in that difficult part of chirurgery relating to the teeth. Dublin: printed and are to be sold in London, by William Whitwood, 1687. Second printing, the London issue, 4to, (58 + 1pp.), antique style panelled calf, spine lettered in gilt, old ink stamp of Sion College Library on title verso, title dust-stained with skilful paper repair restoring loss of three letters and part of the ruled border, upper margin shaved throughout affecting the running headline and some page numerals, final leaf strengthened at inner margin and shaved at fore-margin with loss of some page numerals, text complete though without the advertisement leaf found in the Bodleian Library, a copy loosely inserted in facsimile, cloth slipcase
Footnote
Provenance: Sion College Library, R.A. Cohen Collection.
Note: The first book in English on dentistry The Operator for the Teeth
Very rare: believed to be the only copy in private hands. Wing A1019; Garrison & Morton 3670; not in Menzies Campbell; Crowley 1510; Poletti p. 7; Weinberger p.6; see R.A. Cohen (ed): Charles Allen. The Operator for the Teeth 1685. With a new introduction by R.A. Cohen. Dawsons, 1969.
Printings:
1685 York [1 copy only, York Minster Library]
1686 London [1 copy only, Trinity College, Cambridge; under the title The Operator for the Teeth]
1686 (?) Dublin [4 copies, none in the USA]
1687, Dublin, London issue [11 copies, including this one, in UK & Ireland, 3 copies in USA]