£800
DAVID GARRICK'S COPY - SWIFT, JONATHAN A TALE OF A TUB
Printed for John Nutt, near Stationers-Hall, London, 1704, first edition, bookplate of David Garrick (1717-1789, English playwright, actor-manager and noted bibliophile), featuring dramatic devices and the words "La premiere chose qu'on doit faire quand on a emprunte un livre, c'est de le lire afin de pouvoir le rendre plutot", roughly translating as "The first thing that one must do when one has borrowed a book is to read it so that it can be returned as soon as possible", bound in contemporary tan calf and housed in a later bespoke red Morocco case, the spine titled "Swift's Tale of A Tub, 1704, Garrick's Copy".
"Book collecting was no fringe leisure interest for Garrick; it was a lifelong preoccupation. He assembled a general library of over 3,000 volumes and a renowned dramatic library of ca. 1,300 old plays, the latter bequeathed to the British Museum in 1779. Rich in English drama and books on theatre history, dramaturgy and the theory of dramatic character, the library was recognised as an unrivalled scholarly resource by contemporary editors of Shakespeare and other early English dramatists, and by literary and musical historians. Garrick extended liberal access and borrowing privileges to friends and acquaintances such as Charles Burney, Thomas Percy, George Steevens and Thomas Warton. Garrick's library facilitated his own private study and connected him inextricably to the book collecting culture of the period."
- Smith, Nicholas D. An Actor's Library: David Garrick, Book Collecting and Literary Friendships, Oak Knoll Press, 2017
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