This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/1/2023
CRAWFURD, George (1681-1748). The Lives and Characters of the Officers of the Crown of the State in Scotland… Edinburgh: by Robert Fleming for James M’Euen, 1726.
Folio (333 x 210 mm). Wood-engraved vignette on title-page and tail-pieces. Full contemporary paneled calf stamped in blind, spine in 7 compartments with raised bands, dark red leather lettering piece gilt in second, others completely gilt, red speckled edges (spine darkened with some light splitting to joints at ends). (Some tiny marginal worming near upper corner to first several leaves, light browning to title, front blank with small corner tear). Provenance: Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat (1667-1747), engraved armorial bookplate of the famous Scottish Jacobite, nicknamed the Fox, was among the Highlanders defeated at the Battle of Culloden and convicted of treason against the Crown for which he was sentenced to death and subsequently beheaded. His laughter as he was being executed is said to be the origin of the phrase “to laugh one’s head off”. Lovat became the last man in Britain to be executed from beheading.
FIRST EDITION, with the final unnumbered leaf bound between pp. 476 and 477 as seen in some copies. ESTC T144044.