“PERSONS FAMOUS FOR THEIR ECCENTRICITY, IMMORALITY, DISHONESTY…”

CAULFIELD, James. Portraits, Memoirs, and Characters, of Remarkable Persons, from the Revolution in 1688 to the End of the Reign of George II. London: H.R. Young and T.H. Whitely, 1819-20. Four volumes. Octavo, contemporary full black straight-grain morocco, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated and blind-stamped boards and spines, all edges gilt. $1250.

1819 edition of Caulfield’s engaging collection of eccentric biographies, with 155 engraved portraits, very handsomely bound.

A print dealer, Caulfield began issuing individual engraved portraits with descriptions as early as 1790. His quirky and delightful "remarkable characters" are "persons famous for their eccentricity, immorality, dishonesty, and so forth" (DNB), and include such characters as Granny, "a drunken half-blind woman," John Valerius, "born without arms," Colonel Francis Charteris, "a debauchee," Mrs. Sarah Mapp, "a female bone-setter," Little Will, "waiter at the Turk's-head Coffee-house," Patie Birnie, "an impudent Scotch fiddler," Thomas Guy, "a bookselling miser," Sarah Pridden, "a profligate prostitute," and Daniel Defoe, "a political writer and novelist." Bookplates.

Just a bit of foxing to plates and text, binding in exceptionally nice condition with only minor wear and rubbing to some joints, gilt bright.