Item #132 A View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany. M. D John Moore.
A View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany
A View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany
A View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany
A View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany
A View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany
A View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany

A View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany

Publisher: London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1783.

Edition: Fifth Edition, Corrected

Binding: Contemporary full tree-calf, gilt-tooled borders in Greek key and floral patterns, gilt spines with red and black morocco title/volume labels. Spines richly gilt but with some rubbing, chipping at head and tail, and cracking to joints. Marbled endpapers.

Description: A fine 18th-century travel narrative by the Scottish physician and novelist John Moore (1729–1802), celebrated for his acute observations of European society and manners. First published in 1779, Moore’s work quickly became one of the period’s most popular travelogues, reprinted in multiple editions by 1783. His accounts of salons, courts, and intellectual circles in France, Switzerland, and Germany provide both vivid anecdotal detail and a sharp moral commentary on continental customs, contrasting them with those of Britain.

This two-volume set is bound in handsome contemporary tree-calf with elaborate gilt spines, red and black morocco labels, and marbled endpapers. Of extraordinary importance is the provenance: the volumes bear the armorial bookplates of Mathew Wilson (“Res non verba”) and, more significantly, Frances Mary Richardson Currer (1785–1861), the famed Yorkshire bibliophile whose Eshton Hall library was one of the greatest private collections of her day. Currer has often been regarded as “the first female book collector in England,” and her library was so admired that Thomas Frognall Dibdin, the great bibliographer, praised her as a “Patroness of Learning.” Currer’s bookplate alone places these volumes in the top tier of collectible travel literature, connecting them to one of the most important private libraries in British history.

Condition: Very Good overall. Binding with expected rubbing, some chipping to spine ends, joints cracked but holding. Boards with attractive tree-calf pattern and gilt borders. Internally clean with only light toning and foxing to preliminaries. All text complete. A sound and handsome set with illustrious provenance.

Annotation: Armorial bookplate of Mathew Wilson, with motto Res non verba (“Deeds, not words”).

Armorial bookplate of Frances Mary Richardson Currer, renowned early female bibliophile and owner of Eshton Hall Library.
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Item #132

Price: $1,550.00

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