The History of the Rebellion In the Year 1745 by John Home, Esq. Printed in London by A. Strahan for T. Cadell in the Strand in 1802, 4to.
FIRST EDITION of Home's famous work on the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 where forces loyal to the deposed Stuart king attempted to regain the throne of England. A fantastic example with notably interesting provenance, detailed below. This book also has some excellent foldout maps and illustrations throughout.
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Provenance:
Bookplate of Gordon Home with his signature to ffep verso dated June 23 1927. This is Gordon Cochrane Home (1878-1969), a very well regarded English landscape artist, writer, and illustrator with numerous published works. His works were frequently exhibited at the Royal Academy. He travelled widely and illustrated many travel books, working with the London publishers A & C Black, J.M. Dent, and a few others. He also appears to be a direct descendent of the author of this book John Home.
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Home is amongst the sixteen writers and poets depicted on the lower capital heads of the huge 200 foot tall Scott Monument on Princes Street in Edinburgh, others including Robert Burns, Lord Byron, Tobias Smollett, and other writers of similar importance. He appears at the far right side on the east face and a photo can be seen on Wikipedia. There is also a small bronze plaque that stands near the site of his home on Maritime Street in Leith. His house was demolished in the 1950s and now holds a modern housing development called Bell's Court.
Similar to the example sold by Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh, 26th July 2002 lot 116.
Size: 225 x 270 mm (approx.)
Condition:
Spine rubbed with some loss to the gilt. Retains a potentially near contemporary black tooled morocco label. Joints cracked and tender with both boards attached with the front a little fragile. Shelf and edge wear. Some wear to boards, no loss to gilt centre design. Top page edge dulled as typical. Bookplate to front pastedown and ink signature to ffep verso as discussed under provenance, above. A little separation in the gutter to verso of A2. Collated as complete including the map of Scotland, bust of Charles Stuart, and the three foldout battle plans for Preston, Falkirk, and Culloden, also with the more scarce errata/addendum leaf at the rear. The binding is probably original or very near contemporary. Some foxing through the text block and some mild toning but generally fairly clean. The foxing is heaviest to the foldout plates as pictured.
