Motives for the Establishment of the Marine Society.
[HANWAY, (Jonas)].
BOUND BY HANWAY'S FIRST BINDER
By a Merchant.
Engraved frontispiece by T. Major after S. Wale. Title printed in red and black.
First Edition. Small 4to. [241 x 188 x 8 mm]. Bound in contemporary red goatskin by Jonas Hanway's first binder, gilt border of a dog-tooth roll, and a roll of semi-circles and dots, together with repeated fleurons. In the centre a lozenge composed of fleurons, a crown, etc. Spine divided into seven panels, comb-marbled endleaves, g.e. (Joints split, headcaps broken, corners worn, label missing).
London: 1757
Bound in at the end "The Receipts of the Marine Society, from July 1756, to March 1757", with manuscript additions on the verso.
Jonas Hanway, born in Portsmouth in 1712 where his father was a wealthy victualler for the Navy, is principally remembered as one of the foremost philanthropists of the eighteenth century, and founder of the Marine Society, along with lesser claims to fame such as the unlikely distinction of the being the first gentleman to carry an umbrella in London, through his controversy with Dr. Johnson on the merits of tea, and his enthusiasm for wholemeal bread.
To further his causes Hanway had since at least 1759 commissioned special bindings on his own and other publications for presentation. These bindings of considerable charm and originality are the work of two binders, the change coming in 1765. Bindings by Jonas Hanway's first binder are difficult to fine, and although the spine is worn the covers are in fine condition. Hobson in Appendix X of his English bindings... of J. R. Abbey only lists ten, Nixon added several more in his Five Centuries of English Bookbinding . Stylistically they resemble the "Harleian" bindings of some thirty years earlier and they have none of the characteristic tools of the later Hanway bindings. We do not know the binder's name but he seems to have ceased to bind for Hanway about 1765, or conceivably he continued to bind for Hanway but with a completely new set of tools.
For other bindings by Hanway's first binder see - Hobson - English Bindings... of J. R. Abbey , no.88. Nixon & Foot - the History of Decorated Bookbinding in England , pp.87-88, plate 92.
Bookplate removed.
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