Bell's British Theatre

Complete set of 18 volumes of the first edition of John Bell's British Theatre with the de Wilde portraits.

"In 1793, the year of his first bancrupty, the beleaguered Bell bound up and sold the first 90 numbers of the new de Wilde-illustrated edition without general volume title pages." (Kalman A. Burnim and Philip H. Highfill Jr.).

This set conforms to that description: volumes 1 to 18, each with five plays complete with all 90 title pages and theatrical portraits by Samuel de Wilde, engraved by John Chapman, lacking volume titles.

Portraits include actors, actresses and opera singers of the Georgian stage including Sarah Siddons, John Philip Kemble, Robert Baddeley, Isabella Mattocks, Charles Lee Lewes, Harriet Pye Esten, Elizabeth Billington, Anna Maria Crouch, Anna Selina Storace, Joseph George Holman, Elizabeth Younge (later Pope),etc.

Vol. 1: Comus by John Milton, Maid of the Mill, School for Fathers and Love in a Village by Isaac Bickerstaff, The Beggar's Opera by John Gay.
Vol. 2: Venice Preserved by Thomas Otway, The Fair Penitent by Nicholas Rowe, Zara by Aaron Hill, Douglas by John Holme, The Mourning Bride by William Congreve.
Vol. 3: Rule a Wife and Have a Wife by Beaumont and Fletcher, The Alchymist by Ben Jonson, Love for Love by William Congreve, Love Makes a Man by Colley Cibber, The Busybody by Mrs Centlivre.
Vol. 4: The Orphan by Thomas Otway, The Albion Queens by John Banks, Cato by Joseph Addison, The Country Girl by David Garrick, Chances by Beaumont and Fletcher.
Vol. 5 The Tender Husband by Sir Richard Steele, The Beaux Stratagem by George Farquhar, The Spanish Fryar by John Dryden, The Distrest Mother by Ambrose Philips, The Earl of Essex by Henry Jones.
Vol. 6: Jane Shore by Nicholas Rowe, Edward the Black Prince by W. Shirley, The Conscious Lovers by Sir Richard Steele, Every Man in his Humour by David Garrick, Philaster by Beaumont and Fletcher,
Vol. 7: The Country Lasses by Charles Johnson, The Fair Quaker of Deal by Charles Shadwell, Oedipus by Dryden and Lee, Medea by Richard Glover, The Miser by Henry Fielding.
Vol. 8: Oroonoko by Thomas Southern, The Suspicious Husband by Dr. Hoadly, The Carmelite by Richard Cumberland, She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith, Alzira by Aaron Hill.
Vol. 9: The Careless Husband by Colley Cibber, The Provok'd Husband by John Vanbrugh, Boadicea by Richard Glover, Lady Jane Grey by Nicholas Rowe, A Bold Stroke for a Wife by Mrs. Centlivre.
Vol. 10: Cleone by R. Dodsley, Ximena by Colley Cibber, All for Love by John Dryden, Tamerlane by Nicholas Rowe, The Way to Keep Him by Arthur Murphy.
Vol. 11: Tancred and Sigismunda by James Thomson, All in the Wrong and The Grecian Daughter by Arthur Murphy, The Recruiting Officer by George Farquhar, Isabella by Thomas Southern.
Vol. 12: A Constant Couple by George Farquhar, The Gamesters by Shirley and Johnson, George Barnwell by George Lillo, The West Indian by Richard Cumberland, The Hypocrite by Isaac Bickerstaff.
Vol. 13: The City Wives' Confederacy by John Vanbrugh, The Wonder by Mrs. Centlivre, The Committee by Sir R. Howard, The Gamster by Edward Moore, Amphitryon by Dryden and Hawkesworth.
Vol. 14: The Foundling by Edward Moore, The Good Natured Man by Oliver Goldsmith, The Brothers by Richard Cumberland, The Minor by Samuel Foote, The Earl of Warwick by Dr. Franklin.
Vol. 15: The Natural Son by Richard Cumberland, the Roman Father by W. Whitehead, The Jealous Wife by George Colman, The Refusal and The Kind Impostor by Colley Cibber.
Vol. 16: The Double Gallant by Colley Cibber, The Drummer by Joseph Addison, The Clandestine Marriage by Colman and Garrick, The School for Wives by Hugh Kelly, The Fashionable Lover by Richard Cumberland.
Vol. 17: The School for Lovers by William Whitehead, The Countess of Salisbury by Hall Hartson, The Choleric Man and The Battle of Hastings by Richard Cumberland, The Discovery by Mrs Frances Sheridan.
Vol. 18: The Revenge by Edward Young, Theodosius by Nathaniel Lee, The Rival Queens by Nathaniel Lee, King Charles I by William Havard, The Siege of Damascus by John Hughes.

Ownership initials "CB 1795" inscribed on first title page in each volume.

Samuel de Wilde (1751-1832) was a London portrait painter of Dutch descent famous for his theatrical portraits. He provided the dramatic portraits for Bell's British Theatre from 1791 to 1795, leading to commissions from other publications, such as the Monthly Mirror, Cawthorn's Minor British Theatre, and Oxberry's New English Drama, for the next two decades.

All uniformly bound in full speckled calf with two black leather gilt title labels, all hinges holding firm, play titles in manuscript on endpapers, interior bright and clean, all 90 copperplate engravings in good condition.