This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/20/2022
FULLER, Thomas (1608–1661). The Holy State [and] The Profane State. Cambridge: Roger Daniel for John Williams, 1642. Small folio in fours (273 x 173 mm). (Two tiny repaired holes to title–page, marginal repair along S3 outer margin). Additional engraved title–page, 21 engravings including 18 in text, all by William Marshall (some marginal staining or browning to engraved title–page; corner discretely repaired). Full late 18th century black straight–grain morocco, spine gilt–lettered in two compartments, all edges gilt, gilt turn ins, stamp–signed by Charles Lewis. Provenance: William Lucy (d. 1723), engraved armorial bookplate; George Lucy (d. 1845), armorial bookplate; John Page Woodbury (1827–1910); On exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts held by the Club of Odd Volumes, Boston 25 April–5 June, 1898 (See Allen, Catalogue of a loan exhibition of book–plates and superlibros held at the Club of odd volumes…). FIRST EDITION of a guide to conduct in the form of character studies of historical figures, including Sir Francis Drake, with an account of his voyages to the Americas. A SHAKESPEARE ASSOCIATION. William Lucy, inherited the Cherlecote estate (now Charlecote Park) from a direct lineage of Lucy’s including Sir Thomas Lucy (c. 1532–1600) who inherited it in 1551. Thomas Lucy is best known for having prosecuted William Shakespeare in c. 1583 for poaching in the deer park owned by Lucy. Lucy is said to be the basis for Justice Shallow in Shakespeare’s play “The Merry Wives of Windsor” in which Shakespeare avenged himself. “[Shakespeare] had, by a misfortune common enough to young Fellows, fallen into ill Company; and amongst them, some that made a frequent practice of Deer–stealing, engag’d him with them more than once in robbing a Park that belong’d to Sir Thomas Lucy of Cherlecot, near Stratford. For this he was prosecuted by that Gentleman, as he thought, somewhat too severely; and in order to revenge that ill Usage, he made a Balld upon him. And tho’ this, probably the first Essay of his Poetry, be lost, yet it is said to have been so very, that it redoubled the Prosecution against him to that degree, that he was oblig’d to leave his Business and Family in Warwickshire, for some time and shelter himself in London” (Rowe, Account of the Life of Shakespeare, 1709 edition). Grolier Club, Wither to Prior 387; Pforzheimer 392; Wing F2443. From the private library of a distinguished Chicago book collector.