Maxims and Discourses, Moral and Divine: taken from the Works of Arch-Bishop Tillotson, and Methodiz'd and Connected.

Publication details: London: Printed for J. Tonson [...] in the Strand,1719.

Rare Book

Bookseller Notes

A handsome binding on this association copy of book compiled from sermons by Archbishop of Canterbury John Tillotson. With the neat ownership inscription of Lady Caroline Brydges (later Caroline Leigh, 1729-1804), daughter of Henry Brydges, 2nd Duke of Chandos. Caroline was the step-granddaughter of the volume's dedicatee, Cassandra, Lady Cararvon (ne Willoughby, 1670-1735). Evidently much admired by the compiler of this volume, the historian Laurence Echard (1672-1730) Cassandra was a fascinating woman. Until her marriage, aged forty-three, to her cousin James Brydges (Duke of Chandos, 1663-1744), she had been the mistress of her brother's house at Wollaton Hall. There she had spent her time cataloguing her father's botanical and zoological collections - he was the naturalist Francis Willughby - organising the family archives, writing letters, and travelling extensively within Great Britain. A relative of the Austen family, she was a the namesake of Jane Austen's mother and sister.

Description

1719. pp. [16], 109, [3, ads], 8vo, contemporary English red morocco, covers richly gilt with broad stylised outer roll enclosing elaborate central panels incorporating a variety of floral stamps, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, gilt rolls at board edges and turn ins; faint blind score marks which have guided the (novice?) binder to the centre of the boards, joints rubbed, a few (unobtrusive) marks to the boards; ownership inscription 'Caroline Brydges 1745' to the initial blank (see below), later Leigh family armorial bookplate to the front pastedown, very good