Sep 30, 2021 - Sale 2580

Sale 2580 - Lot 161

Price Realized: $ 2,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
(MASSACHUSETTS.) Thomas Hutchinson. The History of the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay / The History of the Province . . . / A Collection of Original Papers Relative to the History of the Colony / The History of the Province . . . from 1749 to 1774. [4], iv, 566; [4], iv, 539; [2], ii, 576; xx, 551 pages. 4 volumes. 8vo, early 20th century 1/2 morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe of London (the three "History" volumes in red, "Collection" in green); intermittent foxing and minor dampstaining, Volume III with edges tinted green; early ownership inscriptions on each. In modern cloth cases. Boston: Thomas & John Fleet, 1764, 1767, 1769; London, 1828
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

First edition of all four volumes (second issue of Volume IV with added preface). "Ranks above all other colonial historians"--Kraus, Writing of American History, page 55. Hutchinson was a Loyalist. When his house was attacked during the Stamp Act riots, the manuscript of Volume II was thrown into the muddy streets, but was recovered and issued separately in 1767. He moved to London with the onset of the Revolution. The Collection is described as "a necessary adjunct to Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay," and the fourth volume was published posthumously from Hutchinson's notes in 1828--Sabin 34069, 34075, 34082. Evans 9705, 10658, 11300; Howes H853.

The four volumes each have different early provenance. Volume I bears extensive inscriptions tracing ownership from the Rev. Noah Hobart of Fairfield, CT in 1765, to his stepson Dr. Nathaniel Lothrop; then given at Plymouth to John Davis in 1828. Volume II is inscribed on the title page "Eben'r Hazard's, Erskine Hazard," suggesting ownership by historian and postmaster general Ebenezer Hazard (1744-1819) and his son the industrialist Erskine Hazard (1790-1865), though the inscription is in the hand of neither. Volume III is inscribed on the title page "S. Dexter's, A. Ward's." Volume IV is inscribed "Jno Davis" and has a note bound in, "With the editor's best acknowledgments of Judge Davis's exertions in forwarding the publication of the acompanying work," Greatham, April 23 1828. Judge John Davis (1861-1847), president of the Massachusetts Historical Society, played a role in the publication of the 4th volume and is cited in its preface; he apparently brought these 4 volumes together. They appear as a group in Goodspeed's 1966 catalog. We trace no other complete sets of 4 volumes at auction since a Swann sale, 18 September 1986, lot 172.