(HIGHWAYMEN).
The life of Jack Rann, otherwise Sixteen-String Jack, the noted highwayman; who was executed at Tyburn, November 30, 1774.
London: by and for Hodgson and Co., n.d. [c. 1825.]
8vo (190 × 115 mm), pp. 24, folding hand-coloured engraved frontispiece. Title slightly thumbed. Stab stitched and later rather simply stitched the length of the spine, without publisher's wrappers, but a good copy.
A scarce and especially colourful offering from Hodgson's sixpenny series; works which were characterised by marvellously racy folding frontispieces. This one has the usual central portrait of the hero and four larger images: "thrown from a window at Bagnigge Wells"; "getting in at the window of one of his ladies & taken by the watch"; "examined at Bow Street"; "invites 7 of his women to dine with him the day before his execution." That the Life is aimed at younger readers is suggested by the chiding of Rann for his lack of the ability to love (despite his success with the ladies) and the recommendation of an instructional pamphlet for the young entitled the Lover's New Guide: "Young persons cannot purchase, or parents present a more admirable production, as a guide on the most important concerns of human life."
COPAC gives BL only.
£275.00
US$546.09*
* Given as a guide only. Based on an exchange rate of £1 = US$1.985799 for the day 25 July 2008 but liable to fluctuate.
25 July 2008