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[COLOR-PLATE BOOKS]. [JOHNSTONE, Charles (1719-1800)]. Chrysal; or the Adventures of a Guinea: By an Adept. London: Printed for Hector M’Lean… by Howlett and Brimmer, 1821. 8vos. Illustrated with 15 beautifully hand-colored plates engraved by Maddocks, E. F. Burney, and W. Read. 3 volumes. Complete. viii, 319; [iv], 321; [iv], 326 pp. Handsomely bound in contemporary full diced calf, boards decoratively ruled in gilt, spines ruled, tooled and lettered in gilt, marbled edges, plain blue endleaves (some minor wear, bumping to bindings, front joint of volume 3 a bit chipped, a few hinges starting, text leaves and plates quite bright and clean, despite occasional minor soiling, each volume with bookplate (“Fasquel”) on fp). Fine. “NEW EDITION,” RARE IN THIS CONDITION. “One of the first of the immensely popular 18th-century “it-narratives”, Chrysal; or, The Adventures of a Guinea, by the Irish writer Charles Johnstone, was originally published anonymously, in 1760, in two volumes; tells the tale of a coin and the human intrigue to which it finds itself bearing witness. After a rather dramatic and wonderfully overwrought beginning in which we learn of the coin being bestowed with consciousness and dug from a Peruvian mine, the monetary narrator proceeds to dish the dirt on various celebrities of the time as it passes from hand to hand, being conveniently present for a variety of gossip-worthy conversations, romps, and scandals. Spending some time circulating among the streets and elite of London, the coin also finds itself in the courts of Lisbon and Vienna, and the front-lines of war in Germany (the Seven Years’ War was raging at the time), Canada, and the Caribbean. Upon publication in 1760, the book was a runaway success, being issued in five separate editions in its first three years alone. On the back of Chrysal’s success there came a slew of similar titles told from the perspective of inanimate objects. Johnston’s chief work (spelled variously Johnston, Johnson and Johnstone). The first and second volumes were written during a visit to the earl of Mount-Edgcumbe in Devon and had already gone through three editions before Johnstone was prevailed on to write the concluding two, and the whole work was frequently reprinted during the eighteenth century (and translated into French). An excoriating satire that won Johnstone respect as a wit but few friends, the novel is set roughly during the period of the Seven Years’ War (1757-63) and pretends to reveal political secrets, and to expose the private profligacy of many of the well-known and highly colourful public characters of the time.” (ODNB) .