Boswell's Life of Johnson

Published in an edition of 1,750 copies on 16 May 1791 — the twenty-eighth anniversary, to the day, of Boswell first meeting Johnson in the back parlour of Tom Davies's bookshop in Russell Street. He had been taking notes towards this book for the whole of those twenty-eight years.

See this copy in the catalogue

This set is the first edition in its first state: the uncorrected 'gve' reading survives on page 135 of volume I, and the cancel leaves are present as Rothschild lists them.

As bought

Engraved portrait frontispiece after Reynolds, somewhat browned. Two engraved plates of facsimiles, the corner-tip of one torn away. Some spotting and occasional browning, and damp staining to the endpapers.

The bindings were the problem. Contemporary tree calf, rubbed, the calf flaking away from the spines and the gilt worn thin — the upper cover of volume I detached outright, and every other cover close behind it. Two hundred and thirty-five years of opening and closing had finally gone through the leather joints.

The restoration

Martin at Aquarius Book Restorers looked the volumes over and wrote back:

I have looked over the volumes and they are in good condition apart from the

leather joints and spines.

Reback the spines preserving the original labels — I will replace the labels

with new if the originals do not respond to removal. Preserve original boards

and repair the broken corners. New head bands. Tool the spines in full gilt to

style. Furbish bindings.

Which is the conservative reading of the job, and the right one: the text block untouched, the original boards kept and repaired rather than replaced, and the original morocco labels preserved if they could be lifted. They could. The gilt on the spines is new work tooled to period style, and the books close properly for the first time in a long while.

Plates