Lot 449
Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de. El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, 4 volumes, 4 engraved frontispieces, engraved portrait and 31 engraved plates after Antonio Carnicero, numerous engraved head- and tail-pieces, without the double-page engraved map, light spotting, titles slightly soiled, contemporary dark blue straight-grained morocco gilt, all edges gilt, extremities rubbed, bookseller's ticket for Cowley & Richardson, Bristol, bookplates of Richard Hart Davis and Alfred Barratt, free endpaper inscribed 'J. Whittingham' in a contemporary hand, 4to, Madrid: Joaquin Ibarra, 1780
PROVENANCE: Richard Hart Davis (1766-1842), a successful Bristol merchant, rose to become M.P. of that city and embarked on a notable political career. Loosely inserted in volume one is a 2pp. ALS from Hannah More, dated May 30 1828, 'When young I read Don Quixote in English, I was not satisfied; I read it in French, still I was not satisfied; ?Pathes the famous spaniard came to England, he was my Master for the Spanish language - I read Don Quixote - I was not only satisfied but transported. I found in it not only all the wit ascribed to it but more wisdom than I ever found in any work of imagination. The pompous language so suited to the pompous hero
Such knowledge of the human heart
and such skill in displaying it I had not found before in any modern author. I am now not likely to look again into this incomparable book, indeed I do not read at all. I therefore take the liberty to make this small addition to your library, and am my dear sir, Yours very sincerely, Hannah More.', together with the recipient's 6pp. reply, on two sheets, folded.
