The Britwell-Knight Copy

(London): P(ierce). Tempest, (ca. 1689-1709). First complete edition, early issue. Two volumes in one. Folio. Illustrated with two engraved title-pages and 72 unnumbered engraved plates (some plates watermarked "P IOLLY", ca. after 1699). Old speckled and mottled brown paneled calf, decorated in blind, rebacked, old leather and paper spine labels, boards and extremities scuffed and moderately worn, corners worn; red speckled edges; marbled endpapers; contemporary ownership signature at top of first engraved title-page ("Richd Butler"); repaired open tear at center of third plate in first volume; scattered spotting. Shesgreen, "The Editions, Imitations and Influences of Laroon's Cryes of the City of London" (in Studies In Bibliography XXXV, Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, 1982, pp. 258-271)

A rare and early complete edition of Pierce Tempest's Cryes of the City of London, featuring numerous finely engraved plates depicting London's street peddlers, performers, hawkers, merchants, and other characters. Based on designs by Dutch engraver Marcellus Laroon, Tempest first published this work in 1687 with an unspecified number of plates. It was frequently enlarged by Tempest over the next three years, in 1687/88 (40 plates), 1688 (60 plates), 1688 (72 plates), and finally, in 1689 (with 74 plates). The last known edition published by Tempest was in 1709, with the plates then passing to Henry Overton, ca. 1711 or later. The earliest editions, such as this copy, have unnumbered plates (Overton added numerals and his imprint to his editions), although some plates in this copy are watermarked "P IOLLY", who, according to Shesgreen, "worked only between 1699 and 1715 (p. 261). In 1760, these plates passed to Robert Sayer, where they were reworked.