Home / Browse / Decorative Bindings / The Spectator.
[ADDISON, Joseph, & Richard Steele]
The Spectator.
Publisher: London: Printed for S. Buckley, at The Dolphin in Little-Britain; and J.Tonson at Shakespeare's Head, 1712
Stock code: 69141
Price: £750 Currency Conversion
An early set of The Spectator in an attractive period calf binding. The Spectator was one of the first British periodicals, originally published daily in 1711 and 1712. Appealing to the growing numbers of middle class traders and shop keepers in London, Addison estimated it to have been read by a tenth of the city's population, primarily in coffee shops. The content was innovative and made the gentlemanly culture of letters accessible to a wide audience for the first time. The Spectator was reprinted in book form many times and remained popular through the 19th century.
8 volumes, octavo (194 × 122 mm). Contemporary pale calf, titles and elaborate decoration to spines, raised bands, panelled boards, marbled endpapers. Bookplate to front pastedowns, pages browned and foxed, some loss of gilt to spines, bindings nice and tight, overall in very good condition.
