?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 500
[WRIGHT, EDWARD?] Sketches in Bedlam; or, Characteristic Traits of Insanity,as displayed in the Cases of One Hundred and Forty Patients of Both Sexes, now, or recently, confined in New Bethlem . . . By a Constant Observer. xl, 312 pages, including half-title, plus publisher's 12- and 4-page catalogues at end dated April 1823. 8vo, 224x137 mm, modern 1/4 calf with morocco lettering piece, spine slightly faded; contents clean; uncut. London: Sherwood, Jones, 1823
first edition. "An apology for Bethlem Hospital, written in glowing terms and praising the staff, particularly apothecary Edward Wright and the two hospital physicians, for their humane and attentive treatment of the hospital's inmates. The anonymous author no doubt intended to improve Bethlem's reputation, which had taken a deserved beating at the hands of the 1815-16 parliamentary investigation eight years before"--Norman 1952. Hunter & Macalpine, pages 757-58.
