Lot 325
Hamilton, Alexander, publisher. The Town and Country Magazine, or Universal Repository of Knowledge, Instruction and Entertainment, volumes 2-24, A NEAR COMPLETE RUN, first edition, engraved volume titles, 810 engraved plates, light spotting, contemporary calf gilt, heavily rubbed, a few volumes with spines chipped with loss, bookplate of Reverend Gervas Powell, L.L.B, 8vo, London: A. Hamilton, 1771-1792, sold as a periodical, not subject to return RARE. It is a measure of the popularity this magazine once enjoyed that it is cited in the opening scene of Richard Sheridan's enduring play, A School for Scandal. Exploiting the surge in prurient interest for affairs of the heart during the late 18th century, publisher Alexander Hamilton created Town and Country Magazine, so named because it held offices in both urban Clerkenwell and leafy Highgate. Beyond the Tête-à-Tête revelations, however, there are also extensive accounts of the war in America, pioneering advances in science and novelties of all descriptions.
