POPE, Alexander (1688–1744). Letters of Mr. Alexander Pope, and Several of his Friends. London: printed by J. Wright for J. Knapton in Ludgate-street, L. Gilliver in Fleetstreet, J. Brindley in New Bond-street, and R. Dodsley in Pall-mall, 1737. Quarto.
Contemporary mottled calf, with gilt borders, raised bands and gilt spine decoration, professionally restored with a renewed red lettering label in period style and skilfully executed inner hinge reinforcement. Beautifully preserved internally: the text is printed on notably thick, firm paper and is nearly free of spotting. Occasional small spots and local marks, light staining to some opening leaves, a few folded corners and light discoloration around the endpaper margins. The calf retains age wear and rubbed tooling; the restored binding presents handsomely. Watermarked laid endleaves show a fleur-de-lis and an apparent IV countermark.
First authorised edition of Pope’s correspondence, in the subscription-only quarto format, with the corrected B-sheet setting identified by Griffith as no. 455, variant b. An exceptionally well-preserved copy on notably thick, firm paper, with Thomas Payler’s armorial bookplate and subsequent Monreith House library provenance. Complete on photographic collation: 184 bibliographical leaves, including both half-titles, the nine-page Preface, twenty-one-page Contents and additional four-leaf gathering *Dd. The opening half-title reads The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, in Prose. The main title is printed in red and black, with Richardson’s profile portrait of Pope and the inscription Amicitiæ Causa; the engraved headpieces are by Fourdrinier after William Kent. [1]
Collation in this copy’s bound order: A⁴ b–d⁴ e² B–Ee⁴ *Dd⁴ Ff–Ss⁴ Tt²; pagination [36], [9]–224, 215–222 (insert), 225–332. The *Dd gathering follows Ee4, after ordinary page 224. Its repeated pagination belongs to the inserted letters and represents a complete additional gathering. Four free endleaves are present in addition to the printed collation.
The publication’s deliberately limited subscription character is documented by the publishers’ advertisement in the London Gazette, 8–12 February 1736/7: “No more will be printed than Five Hundred.” The notice offers the quarto and large folio at one guinea, and the small folio at half a guinea, through the four booksellers named in the imprint. It is reproduced in George Sherburn’s edition of Pope’s Correspondence, IV, p. 41, in the page scan supplied by Professor James McLaverty. Griffith also records the Daily Post announcement that the quarto was wholly subscribed for and would not be offered for public sale. The advertised ceiling concerns the publication offered in these three formats; the actual number printed and its division among formats remain undocumented. [1–2]
The authorised Letters followed Curll’s supposedly unauthorised publication of 1735, in which Pope had covertly intervened. For this edition Pope revised and arranged his correspondence, presenting his friendships and literary reputation on his own terms. His correspondents include Swift, Bolingbroke and other members of his literary circle. This was the first edition to provide a Contents listing the letters. Pope’s letter to Ralph Allen of 6 November 1736, printed alongside the advertisement in Sherburn, mentions printed subscription receipts and records that his prose was already more than three-quarters printed. [1–2]
The volume preserves revealing features of its production: Letter LI is absent from the numbering, CXI occurs twice, and the inserted *Dd supplies an additional pair of letters numbered CXXI–CXXII. The postscript at page 322 introduces four letters added after the preceding sheets had been printed, with irregular headings representing letters 189–192. Griffith identifies the last two as their first appearances in print that he could trace. Pope’s Translation of a Prayer of Brutus appears at pages 165–166, and his Imitation of Martial in a footnote on page 137. [1]
Provenance
Engraved armorial bookplate of Thomas Payler on the front pastedown, matching Franks 22949, with Payler quartering Turner. The ornate design includes two winged figures supporting the shield and a dove carrying an olive branch. Franks classifies the plate as Jacobean Armorial, a decorative style designation rather than a date in James I’s reign. The combined arms point to the Turner–Payler family of Ileden, Kent. Subsequently in the Monreith House library, the Maxwell family seat in Wigtownshire, evidenced by the loose slip printed MONRIETH HOUSE LIBRARY and the matching M3 shelfmark on the front endleaf. [3]
Literature
Griffith 455, variant b; ESTC T5513; cf. Rothschild 1633–1634.
References
[1] R. H. Griffith, Alexander Pope: A Bibliography, Part II (1927), pp. 357–359, entries 454–455 and accompanying notes. Entry 455 describes this copy’s corrected B-sheet setting; the wider collation and production discussion appears under 454.
[2] George Sherburn, ed., The Correspondence of Alexander Pope, IV, pp. 40–41: Pope to Ralph Allen, 6 November 1736, and the publishers’ London Gazette advertisement of 8–12 February 1736/7 in the note on p. 41. Page scan supplied by Professor James McLaverty, 17 July 2026.
[3] E. R. J. Gambier Howe, Franks Bequest: Catalogue of British and American Book Plates, II (1904), p. 339, no. 22949: Thomas Payler, Payler quartering Turner, Jacobean Armorial.
Atelier Zweig · Item AZ-POPE-LETTERS-1737
