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[COMBE, WILLIAM.] The English Dance of Death. 2 volumes * The English Dance of Life. Together, 3 volumes, with a total of 100 hand-colored aquatint plates by thomas rowlandson, including frontispieces and pictorial additional titles. Large 8vo, 234x143 mm, later 19th-century navy morocco gilt by Tout with triple-fillet border and floral cornerpieces on covers, spines in 6 compartments, lettered in 2 with ornamental tooling in the rest, decorated paper endleaves; contents generally quite clean and almost entirely free of offsetting from the plates; gilt edges. Bookplates of Julius Thompson Benedict and Cecile Murphy Benedict. London: R. Ackermann, 1814-16; 1817
first editions in book form of Rowlandson's Dance of Death, "the only series on the subject since Holbein's to rival that master" (Ray), and its less morbid sequel. Volume 1 of the first work contains the serial issue letterpress title page dated 1814 in addition to the book issue title dated 1815. Abbey Life 263-64; Tooley 410-11; Ray, The Illustrator and the Book in England 35.
