Fine Books & Manuscripts

[SWIFT, Jonathan] (1667–1745). Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World By Capt. Lemuel Gulliver. Vol. III, [the infamous pirated volume]. One volume in two parts. London, 1727. 8vo. Half title. Collation: [A]4, B-H8, I4, 2A4, 2B-L8; p. 113–20 misnumbered 111–118 as called for in Teerink. FIRST EDITION OF THE SPURIOUS THIRD VOLUME. Engraved frontispiece (scant foxing), head and tailpieces. Period Cambridge style calf with darkened speckle paneled boards inside blind tooled frames with tulip fleuron corner-pieces at angles, raised bands, compartment numbered in gilt, gilt tooled fore edges, red speckled edges (joints tired and rubbed, head lightly chipped, scant foxing to first few leaves, small worm hole through sig. L8 to terminal blanks). Provenance: small modern bookplate of Louis and Anne Marie Davidson to front pastedown, engraved armorial bookplate affixed to title verso. A VERY SCARCE AND DESIRABLE VOLUME. Last seen at auction in 2006. Teerink 292. The third pretended volume anonymously published in 1727 is considered the best known spurious third volume to Gulliver’s travels and is frequently offered with the two volumes of the genuine “Travels” published one year prior. Part I (“A Second Voyage to Brobdingnag and A Voyage to Sporunda”), Teerink describes as an “imitation” and Part II (“A Voyage to Sevarambia”) as being “stolen from ‘The History of the Sevarites and Sevarambi’ by one Captain Siden… (1675-9)”. In Sir Walter Scott’s “Memoirs of Jonathan Swift”, Scott referred to this work as “the most impudent combination of piracy and forgery that ever occurred in the literary world”.