RARELY FOUND WITH THE PLATE OF RIGGING. The shipwreck. By a Sailor. A New Edition [BOUND WITH] The Pleasures of Imagination. A Poem. In Three Books

INTERESTING FOLDING PLATE SHOWING THE "ELEVATION OF A MERCHANT-SHIP WITH ALL HER MASTS, YARDS, SAILS AND RIGGING"

8vo. 2 works in 1 volume. 1) pp. [4], 130, with a folding engraved map of the Aegean sea by Thomas Kitchin and a folding plate of a merchant ship with marine terminology by J. Bayly, both after the author's design. Both plates with early restored tears. Dedication leaf to His Royal Highness Edward, Duke of York. Occasional light age toning. 2) [Bound first] pp. 142, [2], with half-title bearing edition statement ("The Fourth Edition") and final leaf with interesting early publisher's catalogue. Title in red and black, large vignette engraved by Louis Peter Boitard on t-p. Head-and tailpieces. "By Mark Akinside" [sic] on t-p.

Contemporary English calf, gilt title to red morocco label. Leather loss at head of spine and light flaws along hinges. Marbled endpapers. Very good condition. Falconer's work is rarely found with the plate of rigging.

1) Rare 2nd edition, "corrected and enlarged", of this important poem by William Falconer, first published in 1762. Falconer was one of three survivors of a shipwreck in the Aegean. His work was greatly influential throughout the late eighteenth century and beyond. It represents the mindset and aspirations of the growing mercantile classes of Great Britain. The poem had a practical application, expounding navigation and the general operation of a merchant sailing ship, but also an allegorical and philosophical dimension. (See Ansbury Powers, British Mercantile Mysticism: The Shipwreck by William Falconer (1762) - Thesis, St. Cloud State University). ESTC T77422.

2) The fourth edition, printed the same year as the first, of Akenside's immensely popular poem, which was reprinted numerous times throughout the 18th century. ESTC T125874.