Gambling Memorabilia Featuring the Collection of Tom Blue

Smith, John (Thomas). Vagabondia; or Anecdotes of Mendicant Wanderers Through the Streets of London. London, 1817. Contemporary half morocco, gilt spine, a.e.g. 4to. Thirty-three etched plates (incl. frontis.). Woodcut text illustrations, title in red and black. 4to. viii, 52pp. Inscribed from Susan Dowager Dutchess of Marlborough [wife of George Spencer, fifth Duke of Marlborough] on the title page. Clean, tall copy, covers rubbed, some plates slightly foxed. An early collection of etchings depicting London’s poor, especially its beggars, a “dreadful” population the author finds disposed to various forms of deception and cunning, making it difficult to discern the “real object of charity from the impostor.” The illustrator was appointed Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum a year before the publication of this collection, and had studied sculpture under Nollekens and mezzotinting under John Keyse Sherwin.