Thomas Frognall Dibdin | The bibliographical Decameron, 1817, 3 volumes, red morocco, the Beckford copy

Thomas Frognall Dibdin

The bibliographical Decameron, or, ten days pleasant discourse upon illuminated manuscripts, and subjects connected with early engraving, typography, and bibliography. London: for the author by W. Bulmer and Co., 1817

3 volumes, 4to (278 x 180mm.), LARGE PAPER COPY, half-title in volume 1, errata at end of volumes 2 and 3, colophon leaf at end of volumes 1 and 3, numerous illustrations in the text (a few printed in red), a small red morocco label with gold printing on p.417 of volume 2, 42 plates (2 double-page), EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED with four portraits of Samuel Leigh, Dibdin himself, Earl Spencer and Thomas Payne, nineteenth-century crimson straight-grained morocco gilt by Charles Lewis (according to Watson Taylor and Beckford catalogues), vellum endleaves, manuscript notes by Beckford on flyleaves, spines faded, board edges slightly rubbed

THE BECKFORD COPY, WITH HIS ANNOTATIONS, of Dibdin's bibliographical masterpiece, covering the history of manuscripts, early printing and book collecting.

PROVENANCE

George Watson Taylor, sale, Evans, 20 March 1823, lot 519, £29-8-0 (price noted on flyleaf in pencil), sold to Clarke; William Beckford, sale, Sotheby's, 30 June 1882, lot 2500, £92, to Hopkins