[Combe, William, after].

[Hand-Colored Plates]. The Tour of Doctor Prosody, in Search of the Antique and the Picturesque, through Scotland, the Hebrides, the Orkney and Shetland Isles.

London: Matthew Iley; Edinburgh: Bell and Bradfute; Glasgow: W. Turnbull, [1821]. First Edition. First edition parody/imitation of the Combe and Rowlandson Dr. Syntax series, with this work poking fun at Boswell’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides. Illustrated with 20 hand-colored aquatint plates drawn and engraved by C. Williams and W. Read.

“[T]he day of the ‘Comic Highlander’ was at hand. In 1821, The Tour of Doctor Prosody in Search of the Antique and Picturesque was published in London . . .” Dunbar, The Costume of Scotland (1984, pg. 78).

8vo. [6], 251pp., without half title. Tooley 433 (noted as a “Syntax Imitation”). Abbey, Life 277. Prideaux, pg. 334. Hardie, pg. 317 (“the plates not by Rowlandson”). About very good in full polished calf, ruled in gilt, raised bands, morocco spine label, spine tooled in gilt, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers, joints and spine previously repaired with some wear, corners bumped, occasional soiling, prior owner bookplate to front pastedown. Item #341

Price: $550.00