Lot 104: [LAMB, Charles (1775-1834)]. The New Year's Feast on His Coming of Age. London: J. Harris

[LAMB, Charles (1775-1834)]. The New Year's Feast on His Coming of Age. London: J. Harris and Son, 1824.

8° (176 x 101mm). 6 hand-coloured engraved plates. One-leaf advertisement for Harris's Cabinet of Amusement at end. (Some marginal spotting.) Late 19th-century red morocco gilt, original printed boards bound in. Provenance: John Gribble, sold Parke-Bernet, New York, 8 May 1945, lot 307 for $130 (£32 10s).

The New Year's Feast is a 'versification' of Charles Lamb's 'Rejoicings upon the New Year's Coming of Age' which had first appeared in the London Magazine in January, 1823. According to the short preface, 'The writer thought it might be rendered both amusing and instructive to the young, if cast in a poetic form... the illustrative Notes are taken chiefly from "Clavis Calendaria" by Brady, and are designed to assist the juvenile capacity in understanding the allusions in the poem.' The Osborne copy lacks the original covers which are preserved here. Osborne II, p. 653; not in Thomson.

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