8vo (191 x 121 mm). (Light spotting.) Original? drab boards, uncut (light wear to extremes). Provenance: ownership signature on front free endpaper.

FIRST COMPLETE COLLECTED EDITION, the earliest known printing of "Humpty Dumpty" and "Little Bo-peep." Parts I and II of the present edition are taken from the collections of the antiquarian and animal rights activist Joseph Ritson, best known for his 1795 edition of the Robin Hood ballads. Parts III and IV derive from the manuscript notes of Francis Douce, preserved in his annotated copy of the 1784 Garlands, and largely follow the rhyme and structure of the earlier sections. Published in 1810, this expanded edition brings together a broader range of popular verse, including several now-familiar nursery rhymes such as “Humpty Dumpty” and “Little Bo-Peep.” Opie, 30; Bronson, Joseph Ritson, Scholar-at-Arms, pp.756-57.