Beckford (William).- Defoe (Daniel).- Stothard (Thomas) [Proofs to Robinson Crusoe], 22 india paper proofs before letters on large paper, comprising 20 plates and 2 title-vignettes engraved by Charles Heath after Stothard, all mounted and neatly numbered in pencil at foot, some light foxing but mostly to tissue guards, William Beckford's copy with his pencil number "W.1702" to corner of front free endpaper, later bookplate of Frank Linsly James, contemporary olive straight-grain morocco-backed red boards, ?by Charles Lewis, spine titled in gilt within single fillet and Beckford's cinquefoil ornament to head and foot, g.e., a little rubbed, lower corners slightly worn, 4to (c.315 x 240mm.), [1820].

⁂ Large paper copy of Stothard's illustrations for Cadell & Davies' 1820 edition of Robinson Crusoe.

Provenance: William Beckford (1760-1844), novelist, writer and collector, whose library passed to his son-in-law, the 10th Duke of Hamilton, and was sold in the great Hamilton Palace sales of 1882-83. Many of Beckford's books were bound with a gilt cinquefoil from his mother's Hamilton arms on the spine or corners.

Hamilton Palace sale (1883) Part III lot 2261 (B.F.Stevens £5 7s 6d).

Frank Linsly James FRGS (1851-90), explorer and author of Wild Tribes of the Sudan, 1883 and The Unknown Horn of Africa, 1888; he was killed by a wounded elephant in Gabon.