[BINDING –– CHARLES LEWIS]. GRAY, Thomas (1716–1771). The Poems of… London: T. Bensley for F. J. Du Roveray, 1800.
Royal 8vo (233 x 141 mm). EXTRA ILLUSTRATED WITH 14 ENGRAVINGS including plates by Fuseli (3 are proofs before letters) and plates by Westall for Sharpe’s edition (spotting to plates, offsetting to text from plates). Contemporary full–grain tan morocco with a central gilt–stamped supralibros on both covers of Theodore Williams, spines in 6 compartments with raised bands, black leather gilt–lettering pieces in 2, others completely gilt, edges gilt, gilt dentelles, BOUND BY CHARLES LEWIS (bookbinders’ ticket).
Provenance: Theodore Williams (1785–1875), bibliophile known for his “magnificent library, which he had sumptuously bound…The majority [of which] were the work of Charles Lewis” (See The Bibliographical Society of London, British Armorial Bindings, at the University of Toronto); old Sotheby’s catalogue note pasted on front flyleaf).
FIRST EDITION, LARGE PAPER COPY, CITED BY LOWNDES in Bibliographer’s Manual (London, 1869, see p. 931). Weinglass, pp. 155–157.