Lot 179

Burns, Robert [with Autograph Letter]

Poems chiefly in the Scottish Dialect

£8,750

Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs

Auction: 17 June 2020 at 11:00 BST

Description

Edinburgh: Creech, 1787. Second edition [first Edinburgh edition], 8vo, engraved portrait frontispiece, with half-title, with the misprint "Boxburgh" and "skinking" correctly spelt, full crimson morocco by Ramage, spines decorated gilt in compartments, inner gilt dentelles, a.e.g., contained in a black morocco, silk lined box, lettered in gilt "Burns Poems - 1787", faint inscription on the title-page, faint offsetting from the portrait to the title, [Egerer 2]; with 5 letters bound in, including 1 autograph letter initialled from Burns, and one annotated "Kirkwood's Acct." by Robert Burns (see Note for details)

Footnote

Note: The following autograph letters are bound in:

(i) Letter of 16 Nov. 1829 from D. Bridges to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, with cover addressed to Sharpe at 93 Princes Street, Edinburgh. The letter is about the recently discovered portrait of Burns by Reid.

(ii) Unsigned letter from Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe presumably to D. Bridges regarding Sharpe's opinion of the Reid portrait and its authenticity.

[iii] Letter of 16 Jan, 1851, from Robert Chambers to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, commenting on the loss of correspondence between Sharpe's father and the poet save for a whimsical letter written by the poet in the character of a vagrant fiddler.

[iv] Account dated 11 April, 1788 from the engraver James Kirkwood addressed to Robert Burns, 'To 36 India paper, quarto, for proof impressions of your head, 3d, to backing paper for D[itt]o and printing 36 proofs, 1d... J. Kirkwood will settle with Mr Creech for the above, when he gets his three copies of the Poems'. Kirkwood subscribed for three copies of the Edinburgh edition and settled his account by printing copies of the Beugo engraving of Burns after Naysmith for him, to send to his friends. It is docketed by Burns as "Kirkwood's acc[omp]t."

[v] Autograph Letter Initialled, from Burns to Thomas Sloan of Dumfries, stating that his black mare has hurt one of her hind legs so ill that she cannot travel, mentioning that he called on Capt. Riddell and saying "excuse this brief epistle from a broken arm", undated, one page, with integral address panel. Thomas Sloan, a native of Wanlockhead, became acquainted with Burns when travelling between Ellisland and Ayrshire during the first year of his occupancy of the farm. He is mentioned in a letter to Captain Riddell from Burns. De Lancey Ferguson, 2ed. 340