A Collection of Old Ballads, London, 1723-25, 3 volumes, 12mo, 47 engraved plates, FINELY BOUND in later red morocco gilt. With 3 other works in 5 vols. (8)

A Collection of Old Ballads. Corrected from the best and most Ancient Copies Extant. With Introductions Historical, Critical, or Humourous. London: Printed for J. Roberts, and D. Leach, 1723-25. 3 volumes, 12mo (160 x 95mm). Half titles in vols. II and III, 47 engraved plates, woodcut ornaments (several leaves repaired in vol. II occasionally with slight loss, a few page numbers cropped in vol. II, 2 leaves detached from vol. III, some spotting, staining and browning most pronounced to vol. one). FINELY BOUND in 19th-century scarlet morocco gilt, covers with gilt fleur-de-lys cornerpieces, thistle motifs stamped in compartments of spine, gilt edges (extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: William Horatio Crawford, Lakelands, Cork (armorial bookplate). Vol. one is a second edition; vols. II and III are first editions. Ambrose Philips (1674-1749) was often cited as the compiler of these ballads, although this claim is now contested. With 3 other works in 5 vols., namely Anne Louise Germaine de Staël's Corinne, ou l' Italie ... Nouvelle Édition (Paris, 1820, 2 vols., contemporary half calf), Francis E. Paget's Tales of the Village ... A New Edition (London, 1841, First and Second Series, 2 vols., contemporary calf gilt) and Austin Dobson's Collected Poems ... Ninth Edition (London, 1913, FINELY BOUND in contemporary red half morocco gilt by Morrell). (8)