OBSCURE CRUIKSHANK PLATE

(CRUIKSHANK, George) [COMBE, William]. The Tour of Doctor Prosody, in Search of the Antique and Picturesque, through Scotland, the Hebrides, the Orkney, and Shetland Isles. Illustrated by Twenty Humorous Plates. London: Matthew Iley, 1821. Tall octavo, early 20th-century full green crushed morocco, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spine, top edge gilt, uncut. $850.

Tall, uncut first edition of this lively imitation of the popular Dr. Syntax tours, with a hand-colored frontispiece by George Cruikshank and 19 hand-colored satirical plates by Charles Williams and William Read, handsomely bound by Rivière & Son.

Attributed by some scholars to William Combe (Halkett & Laing), this contemporary imitation of the Dr. Syntax tours combines a spoof of William Gilpin's artistic theory of the picturesque with a character modeled on Don Quixote. "William Combe wrote and edited between the years 1773 and 1823, upwards of one hundred books, conducted or contributed to a score of journals, and furnished— if we may believe his own note-book— fully two thousand columns of matter to the newspapers and magazines of the time" (J.C. Hotten). Like Dr. Syntax, Dr. Prosody is a lovable eccentric whose misadventures on the road structure all of Combe's popular Tours. Cruikshank's frontispiece is unsigned, but attributed to himself in a copy of Doctor Prosody, which he inscribed to his friend Edward Truman. Cruikshank's name is written in pencil on the frontispiece of this copy, but it is not his signature. Abbey, Life 277. Tooley 433. Cohn 675. Armorial bookplate of noted collector Edward Henry Hill.

Dampstain to margin of frontispiece (not affecting image), faint marks of handling throughout, spine of handsome Rivière binding mellowed to tan, front joint expertly repaired. A very desirable, tall, uncut copy.