Benjamin Franklin | Poor Richard ... for the year 1739

Benjamin Franklin

Poor Richard. 1739. An Almanack For the Year of Christ 1739 ... Fitted to the Latitude of forty degrees, and a Meridian of five hours west from London, but may without sensible error, serve all the adjacent places, even from Newfoundland to South-Carolina. Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by B. Franklin, at the New Printing-Office near the Market, [1738]

Foolscap 8vo (158 x 90 mm, 9 of 12 leaves). Contemporary ownership signature to title and margins, woodcut borders and anatomical man; lacking final three leaves, three leaves just shaved at top margin, browned, some offsetting, scattered staining and spotting, primarily marginal short closed tears, some early marginalia. Contemporary drab paper wrappers; rebacked, largely disbound within wrappers, some soiling and loss. Housed in custom clamshell case.

Exceedingly rare. The present is apparently the only copy to appear at auction in a century.

REFERENCES

Miller 147; ESTC W22775; Evans 4247; Hildeburn 585; Drake 9609

PROVENANCE

George Lamel(?) (contemporary signature to title) — Mary Custard (early signature to margins of final two leaves)