Heading: (Riviere & Son)
Author: [Combe, William]
Title: The Tour of Doctor Syntax, in Search of the Picturesque. A Poem. Seventh Edition, with new Plates. [With:] The Second Tour of Doctor Syntax, in Search of Consolation; A Poem. Volume Second. [With:] The Third Tour of Doctor Syntax, In Search of A Wife. A Poem.
Place Published: London
Publisher:R. Ackermann's Repository of the Arts
Date Published: 1812-1820
Description:

3 volumes. v, 276; [v], 277; [iii], 279 pp. Two pictorial title pages, seventy-eight plates, and one tailpiece; all colored aquatints by Thomas Rowlandson. (8vo) 23x13.5 cm (9x5½"), full green morocco ruled in gilt, gilt decorated turn-ins, raised spine bands with compartments decorated and titled in gilt, all edges gilt, in slipcase. Bound by Riviere & Son. First Editions in book form.

First issue of Vol. 1 text with "Chapter I" instead of "Canto I", plate 5 in second state with girls arm raised and bent; Vol. II, plate 15 in second state (as usual) with caption reading "Skimmington" instead of "Skimmerton." 80 handcolored illustrations in all (including engraved title pages). A comic masterpiece and one of Rowlandson's greatest successes as an illustrator. Bookplates of Mary Bryant Sprague.

Combe's doggerel verses were written to accompany Rowlandson's plates depicting the adventures of a roving school-master, produced for a periodical published by Akermann. The two collaborators, who worked separately, began by satirizing the romantic zest for picturesque landscape championed by William Gilpin; but the wildly popular work--and its sequels--soon became a jovial ramble through all levels of English life. Abbey, Life, 266 & 267. Tooley 427, 428 & 427.

Slipcase a touch worn and stained; volumes gently rubbed, spines sunned; bookplates on front pastedowns, hinges a little delicate, very good.