The Works. With his last Corrections and Improvements.

To which is prefixed an Account of his Life and Writings.Engraved portraits by Basire after Aikman (age 25) and after Paton (age 46), four engraved plates by Tardieu after William Kent to "The Seasons", engraved plate of Newton's monument designed by Kent, engraved plate of Britannia by Van Neist after S. Wale, engraved plate of Britannia and Liberty designed and engraved by Van Neist, engraved plate to "The Castle of Indolence" by Van Neist after Wale, engraved plate to "Agamemnon" by Van Neist after Wale, engraved plates to "Alfred", "Edward and Eleonora", "Tancred and Sigismunda" and "Coriolanus" designed and engraved by J. Miller.2 vols. 4to. [Binding: 303 x 230 mm]. [4], xxiii, [9], 468; [iv], [11], 524 pp. Contemporary diced russia, the covers with an arcading foliate scroll border, spines divided into six panels by single raised bands, the second panels lettered in gilt on red goatskin labels, the fourth numbered in gilt on black goatskin labels within a scalloped border, the third fifth and sixth panels filled with gilt lattice work and dots, in the first panel a green goatskin label with the Conolly crest in gilt and scroll corner pieces, dated at the foot on a black goatskin strip, marbled endleaves, marbled edges (joints rubbed, short crack at the foot of the front joint of vol. 1, head and tailcap of vol. 1 broken, date strip on vol.2 missing).London: for A. Millar,

One portrait browned, light some foxing/browning.

The binding is English. The same roll can be found on two bindings that we have handled in recent years: Oliver Goldsmith, The Citizen of the World (London: Newbery, 1762), presentation copy in red morocco and William Dodd, Poems (London: Dryden Leach, 1767) in calf.

Provenance: 1: From the library of Castletown House, Celbridge, Co. Kildare, the greatest of Irish Palladian houses. The binding was probably made for Thomas Conolly (1738-1803), and has the Conolly crest tooled at the head of the spines and there also are the early nineteenth-century Castletown House bookplate and case label (G5 4to) on the front pastedowns and the original lot number ("499, 6 vols") from a pre-War Castletown auction survives on a paper tag attached by string to vol. 2 and another lot number "533/6" (perhaps from an earlier sale) is faintly written in chalk on both front covers [see the set of Terence (The Hague, 1726) with a label for Battersby & Co. Dublin auctioneers attached in the same manner].

Castletown House was designed by Allessandro Galilei for William Conolly (d.1729), Speaker of the Irish House of Commons from 1715. It was the only house in Ireland designed by Galilei, who left Ireland four years before construction began in 1722. After the death of "Speaker" Conolly and his widow the house was inherited by his nephew, William, and on his death two years later, by his son, Tom, who became known as "Squire" Conolly. He and his wife Lady Louisa Lennox were responsible for renovating the building and completing the interior decorations, some of the work being undertaken by Sir William Chambers. In the 1780s the library was housed in cases at either end of the Long Gallery. In the 1840s it was moved to what is now the State Bedroom. The house remained in the Conolly family until 1965, when it was rescued from destruction and restored by the Irish Georgian Society, becoming its headquarters until recently. It is now owned by a charitable trust. The bookcases are now at Baron's Court, Co. Fermanagh (Duke of Abercorn).

Stock Code: 56174