Benjamin Franklin | The best early edition in English of Franklin's works, with intriguing provenance

Benjamin Franklin

Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin: Consisting of His Life Written by Himself, Together With Essays, Humorous, Moral & Literary, Chiefly in the Manner of the Spectator. London: Printed for G. G. J. and J. Robinson, [no date, ca. 1793]

2 volumes, 8vo (173 x 117 mm). Engraved title-pages with portrait vignettes of Franklin in a fur hat, errata at rear of volume 1, both volumes with Benjamin Franklin's "Mr. Franklin" bookplate stenciled on the front flyleaves by his descendant Franklin Bache in 1939; title-pages foxed, occasional light spotting and soiling in the text, a few dog-eared corners, volume 1 with a short tear in the margin of leaf M3, volume 2 with a short marginal tear in leaf B8. Later three-quarter green leather, gilt, green cloth boards, top edge gilt; a few small spots of wear at the joints, spines, and corners.

The first edition of this much-improved translation of Franklin's autobiography, the third edition overall, the first issue with the errata leaf present in volume 1. Franklin's original bookplate stencils were acquired by the American Philosophical Society in 1947.

REFERENCES

ESTC N26015; Ford, Franklin Bibliography, 438

PROVENANCE

Dan Stroud (1772–1846; a founder of Stroudsburg, Monroe County, Pennsylvania; ink signature dated 1794) — Simpson Stroud (ink gift annotation, dated 22 December 1814) — Franklin Bache (ink bookplate-stencil of his relative Benjamin Franklin) — S. L. Nicholson (a gift from Frankin Bache, with a tipped-in note in volume 1 and a laid-in note in volume 2 explaining the stencil and with some bibliographic details) — National Book Auctions, 8 October 2016, lot 8340 (undesignated consignor)