Thomas Rowlandson's Tours of Dr. Syntax, 1812, 1820, 1821, 3 works, red morocco bindings by Morrell

A beautifully presented set: the best-known works to result from the Combe-Rowlandson collaboration.

Thomas ROWLANDSON (illustrator). – [William COMBE].  The Tour of Doctor Syntax, in Search of the Picturesque. London: 1812. Engraved title with hand-colored vignette, 30 hand-colored aquatint plates. First Edition; The Second Tour of Doctor Syntax, in Search of Consolation. London: 1820. First edition. 24 hand-colored aquatint plates, one uncolored wood-engraved illustration ; The Third Tour of Doctor Syntax, in Search of a Wife. London: [1821]. 24 hand-colored plates, tinted aquatint tailpiece. 3 works in three volumes, octavo (9 x 5 ¾ inches; 229 x 146mm ). 20^th-century red morocco gilt by Morrell, covers with rule and roll tool borders and small decorative cornerpieces, spines in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second, third and fourth compartments, the others with elaborate overall repeat decoration in gilt, gilt turn ins, red/pink cloud-marbled endpapers, top edges gilt.

Excellent copies, first editions in book form, beautifully bound with the full suite of 78 pates by Rowlandson “The misadventures of this elderly pedant gave Rowlandson ample scope for the comic designs of which he was a master, and the three books which deal with Syntax were his greatest success as an illustrator" (Ray).            

Rowlandson's most popular series of illustrated works, with a total of 78 handcolored aquatint plates, and two engraved titles with hand-colored vignettes - the second work was published with a printed letterpress title. In this set, the leaves of "Directions to Binder" for the first two works are bound in.

In the first work the opening leaf of text is headed "Chapter I" not “Canto I”. Condition of contents: probably washed, 8 plates with imprints shaved, occasional small expertly repaired tears, for example: pp. 121 and 181 each with a slightly longer tear running into the image area.

In the second work plate 15 with corrected title Skimmington not Skimerton. Condition of contents: probably washed, 14 plates with imprints shaved, occasional small expertly repaired tears.

In the third work. Condition of contents: probably washed, 13 plates with imprints shaved, pp.201/2 with expertly repaired marginal tear.

“The Tour of Doctor Syntax” was first published as “The Schoolmaster’s Tour” in the ‘Poetical Magazine’: for the book Rowlandson reworked the plates. A similar course was adopted for the second and third works: they appeared serially before their eventual publication in book form. See Abbey (Life) 265-7; Tooley 427-9. Ray 34.