J. Swift, A, Pope and others. 3 volumes of 'Miscellanies' 1st editions, 1727

[Jonathan SWIFT (1667-1745), Alexander POPE and others]. Miscellanies in Prose and Verse. The First Volume. [Miscellanies. The Second Volume; Miscellanies. The Last Volume]. London: printed for Benjamin Motte, 1727-1727-1727. 3 volumes, octavo (7 5/8 x  4 5/8 inches; 193 x 118 mm). Vol.I with p.269 numbered as '296' (as issued), Vol.II with 1p. publisher’s advertisements facing the title, and P3 a cancel. (Light toning to vol.I, old dampstaining to vols. II and III). Contemporary non-uniform calf, variously tooled in blind, or gilt and blind (extremities worn). Provenance: Robt. Thomas (signature in vol.I); E. Arnold (possibly Edwin Arnold [?], signature in vol.III). 

First editions of all three volumes, but a ‘harlequin set. Intended as a foil to the publishing pirates and literary fakers who were targeting Swift and Pope. The pair laid out their stall in the preface to the first volume: 'The Papers that compose the first of these Volumes were printed about sixteen years ago, to which there are now added two or three small Tracts; and the Verses are transferred into a Volume apart. The second (and perhaps a third) will consist like this, of several small Treatises in Prose, wherein a friend or two are concerned. Having both of us been extremely ill-treated by some Booksellers, (especially one Edmund Curll,) it was our Opinion that the best Method we could take for justifying ourselves, would be to publish whatever loose Papers in Prose and Verse, we have formerly written' (Preface to vol.I, dated 27 May 1727). Teerink-Scouten 25 (1a); (2b) (P3 is a cancel and the initial leaf of advertisements is present); (3c).