Royal Navy: Admiral Lord Nelson's Brother-in-Law and the Roy...

Hammer

£60

Royal Navy: Admiral Lord Nelson's Brother-in-Law and the Royal Navy in Malta. Dryden (John) & Beauclerk (Lady Diana, illustrator), The Fables, an interesting association copy, London: Printed by T. Bensley, for J. Edwards, 1797, half-title, illustrated with 9 plates engraved by Bartolozzi and others after Beauclerk, former staining to verso of plates, mostly not affecting the image to recto, further in-text vignettes, fragmentary contemporary Neoclassical calf spine and lower-cover only, the latter's board defective, the extant binding with some losses, tatty and fragmentary marbled endpapers with signs of former damp, etc., folio (37 x 27cm)

Provenance: ?1) George Matcham (1753-1833), brother-in-law of Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte KB (1758-1805), East India Company civil servant and traveller; verso of endpaper with his ink manuscript ownership inscription: George Matcham Esq:re, the book enclosing a loosely-inserted letter cover, inscribed Miss Matcham. 2) Dr John Gray, MD (1768-1827), surgeon to the Royal Navy in Malta, presumably at the hospital pro tempore on Christopher Street, Valletta, and later of the Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar, Hampshire, presented by him to 3) Dr John Snipe (d. 1805), physician of the Mediterranean fleet, who was later sent by Nelson to Messina, Sicily, to procure lemon juice for the fleet to keep scurvy at bay. Verso of half-title inscribed in ink MS: Presented by Mr Gray to his friend Dr Snipe/in the Island of Malta on the ninth day of/July 1804 previous to his leaving that Island for/England. The title-page also bearing Snipe's MS ownership inscription: J. Snipe. M.D.