[William Combe and Thomas Rowlandson, et al:] The Poetical Magazine. London: R. Ackermann, 1809-11. First edition. Four volumes, 8vo (21.5 cm), in modern red crushed half morocco with gilt-lettered spines, marbled endpapers, all page edges gilt; iv, 40, [4] pp.; 372, [4] pp.; 364, [4] pp.; 342, [4] pp.; with 4 engraved title-pages and 52 engraved plates, all but two of which are hand-colored (complete). Abbey Life 214; Tooley 421; Hardie pp. 112-13, 163.
Issued by Rudolph Ackermann, the presiding genius of early nineteenth-century color plate books, as a catch-all for the overflow of poetic effusions submitted to his Repository of Arts, the Poetical Magazine is chiefly remarkable as the FIRST APPEARANCE OF DOCTOR SYNTAX, whose travels, as described by William Combe and illustrated by Thomas Rowlandson, ran through the whole of the publication under the title, "The Schoolmaster’s Tour." This was later published in book form as Doctor Syntax in Search of the Picturesque and proved so popular that it was followed by two sequels (...in Search of Consolation and ...in Search of Wife) as well as a host of spin-offs and imitations. Only in the Poetical Magazine, however, do Rowlandson's plates appear in their first state; a new set of plates, with slight alterations, was made for Dr. Syntax’s appearance in book form.
Rowlandson, who executed a majority of the plates, also supplied delightful images for subjects other than Syntax (e.g., the poems "Edwin and Matilda" and "The Mansion-House Monitor"). Additionally, there are numerous plates by other artists, mostly views, handsomely engraved and exquisitely colored. While much of the poetry is amateurish at best, as might be expected from a catch-all collection, it nevertheless provides a fascinating glimpse of life, love, politics and culture in late-Georgian England.
Text blocks trimmed a little close, occasionally affecting captions and imprints; offsetting from the plates, intermittent mild toning to the plates and text leaves, a very few scattered small spots here and there, else very clean and fresh, firmly and appealingly bound.
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