[London: R. Ackermann, 1809-1811].

Four volumes, complete. 8vo in 4s. 8 3/8 x 5 3/8 inches. iv, 404, [4]; 372, [4]; 364, [4]; 32, [4, last a blank] pp. 52 plates (2 uncolored, 50 hand-colored, 28 of which are by Thomas Rowlandson and relate to the Doctor Syntax poem), 1 figure, indexes to each volume; pages toned and offsetting associated with the plates, as usual, 2 instances of pencil marginalia in Vol. III (inoffensive). Half late-nineteenth-century brown calf, marbled paper over boards, raised bands, dark red spine labels, spine decorated and titled in gilt, new end-papers; binding square and tight, very light rubbing. DB722-010. Very Good.

FIRST EDITION, containing the first appearance of The Schoolmater's Tour, a collaboration between the poet William Combe and the illustrator Thomas Rowlandson. Rowlandson was an English artist and caricaturist of the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth centuries. He was noted for his political satire and social observation. Rowlandson produced both individual social and political satires, as well as a large number of illustrations for novels, humorous books, topographical works, and even bawdy pornographic illustrations. His most popular works were his drawing of Vauxhall which was shown in the Royal Academy exhibition of 1784, and The Schoolmaster's Tour, a series of plates with illustrative verses by Dr. William Combe. First published in Ackerman's Poetical Magazine, 1809-1811, these illustrations achieved a 5th edition by 1813. There followed Dr. Syntax in Search of Consolation (1820) and the Third Tour of Dr. Syntax in Search of a Wife (1821). Rudolph Ackermann was an Anglo-German bookseller, inventor, lithographer, publisher, and businessman. Ackermann moved to Russell Street in 1791 where he published Imitations of Drawings of Fashionable Carriages which he used to promote his business of coach building, but as an artist, soon began experimenting in new illustrating and publishing techniques. Ackermann's print and book publishing business was developed between 1797 and 1800. Ackermann hired many artists of the day and engaged them in many projects to produce both individual prints as well as illustrations for books and magazines, encompassing many different genres including topography, caricature, portraits, transparencies and decorative prints. The Poetical Magazine was essentially an anthology of both old and new poetry. For example, on page 238 appears Phillis Wheatley's "To the University of Cambridge, in New England," which first appeared in Wheatley's Poems of Various Subjects (1773), while the Dr. Syntax poem in these volumes first appeared in this publication. REFERENCES: Abbey, Life in England, No. 214; Tooley, English Books with Colored Plates, No. 421.