Publisher's Synopsis
Contemporary panelled calf, early 19th-century black morocco labels and gilt dates on spines. Housed in a dark brown quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery. Provenance: Robert Callaghan (ink name on title pages, dated 1732), and C. Fox (ink name to pastedown of vol. I and front free endpaper of vol. II, dated 1865). Clipping from The Times dated 9 July 1924, regarding a sale of a different copy, loosely inserted. Late 18th/early 19th-century manuscript addition of a verse by William Bowyer under the portrait frontispiece of Gulliver. Expert restoration at extremities, a few pages lightly creased, some faint staining at head of vol. I. An excellent copy, rarely found in such good condition in a contemporary binding. Frontispiece portrait of Gulliver (first state), 4 maps and 2 plans, additional early 19th-century engraving after Stothard inserted into vol. I (showing Gulliver in Lilliput). True first edition of Swift's masterpiece, Teerink's A edition, with the first state frontispiece. The first state frontispiece has the inscription beneath the portrait, which in the second state was placed around the portrait; a third state is a retouched version of the second. "The clandestine business of getting into print a pseudonymous and satirically explosive political satire entitled Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World (known from the start by its more popular title, Gulliver's Travels) was managed chiefly by Pope, with the assistance of John Gay and Erasmus Lewis. For speed, and to counter the risk of piracy, Motte used five printing houses (those of Edward Say, Henry Woodfall, James Bettenham, William Pearson, and, for the greatest share, that of Jane Ilive). The first edition appeared on 28 October 1726 in two octavo volumes at the price of 8s. 6d., but with unauthorized deletions and insertions by Andrew Tooke (the brother of Benjamin Tooke jun.), and sold out within a week. Gay wrote: 'From the highest to the lowest it is universally read, from the Cabinet-council to the Nursery' Motte followed up with two more octavo editions in 1726 and a duodecimo in 1727, and there was a serialized version which began in the Penny Post (25 November 1726). There were two Dublin editions before the end of 1726, each set up from Motte's first edition. The book sold well in French: the first complete translation appeared at The Hague in January 1727, and an abridged adaptation by the Abbé Desfontaines in Paris in April Swift received from Motte £200 and possibly more from the sales of the book, largely due to Pope's effort at instilling into his friend the principles of 'prudent management' Gulliver's Travels is the book by which Swift is chiefly remembered, and it is the record of his own experience in politics under Queen Anne as an Irishman in what G. B. Shaw called 'John Bull's other island'" (ODNB). The first edition was published on 28 October 1726.
