Item #008541 Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, in a fine, 19th century, full Morocco binding commissioned by Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet and Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, whose Special Collections Department holds the Stirling Maxwell Collection. Robert Burns.
Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, in a fine, 19th century, full Morocco binding commissioned by Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet and Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, whose Special Collections Department holds the Stirling Maxwell Collection
Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, in a fine, 19th century, full Morocco binding commissioned by Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet and Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, whose Special Collections Department holds the Stirling Maxwell Collection
Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, in a fine, 19th century, full Morocco binding commissioned by Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet and Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, whose Special Collections Department holds the Stirling Maxwell Collection
Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, in a fine, 19th century, full Morocco binding commissioned by Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet and Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, whose Special Collections Department holds the Stirling Maxwell Collection
Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, in a fine, 19th century, full Morocco binding commissioned by Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet and Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, whose Special Collections Department holds the Stirling Maxwell Collection
Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, in a fine, 19th century, full Morocco binding commissioned by Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet and Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, whose Special Collections Department holds the Stirling Maxwell Collection
Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, in a fine, 19th century, full Morocco binding commissioned by Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet and Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, whose Special Collections Department holds the Stirling Maxwell Collection
Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, in a fine, 19th century, full Morocco binding commissioned by Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet and Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, whose Special Collections Department holds the Stirling Maxwell Collection
Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, in a fine, 19th century, full Morocco binding commissioned by Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet and Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, whose Special Collections Department holds the Stirling Maxwell Collection

Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, in a fine, 19th century, full Morocco binding commissioned by Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet and Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, whose Special Collections Department holds the Stirling Maxwell Collection.

Edinburgh: Printed for the author, and sold by William Creech, 1787. First Edinburgh edition (second, expanded edition). Leather. This is the 1787 first Edinburgh edition of the poet's first volume of poems, featuring suitably Scottish provenance. This Edinburgh edition is the second, expanded edition following the shorter, "Kilmarnock" edition of 1786.

In this copy, Roxburgh is misspelled as "Boxburgh" at p.xxxvii and p. 232 misprinted as "(332)". The word "stinking" in lieu of "skinking" appears at p.263. The edition was originally issued in French gray paper boards. This copy is bound in presumed 19th century deep green, pebble-grain Morocco with raised spine bands framed by double blind rules and stylized hinge extensions onto the adjacent covers, the covers with double blind rule borders and blind ruled edges. The binder is identified via their stamp “LEIGHTON, BREWER ST” on the front free endpaper verso. “John Leighton, one of a family of bookbinders who were in business in London from 1764 until 1920, opened his shop in Brewer Street, Golden Square, in 1820.”

This was an individually commissioned binding; the sole previous ownership mark is the armorial bookplate affixed to the front pastedown of "William Stirling". The bookplate features the coat of arms of Clan Stirling, which is repeated in blind at the center of the front cover. The center rear cover features the initials "WS" within a decoratively bordered circular device. The contents are bound with all edges gilt, red and gold head and tail bands, and red, green, and white tartan pattern endpapers framed by double blind-ruled turn-ins.

The book’s custom binding and bookplate are those of Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet (1818-1878), known as William Stirling until 1865 when he succeeded to the Maxwell baronetcy. William was a Member of Parliament, author, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and Chancellor of the University of Glasgow – “the first Chancellor… to be elected by the members of the General Council, which had been created in 1859. The University’s Special Collections Department “holds some 2,000 volumes in its Stirling Maxwell Collection, which includes Sir William's unrivaled collection of emblem and device literature, which he assembled over a period of forty years, from Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia and England.” 

Condition of the binding is good - square and sound with the covers still firmly attached, but definitely showing age and wear, with scuffing to the edges, hinges, and raised bands and a roughly .375 x .375 inch loss to the leather at the lower right spine. The contents are very good, complete and only minimally toned, though with modest intermittent spotting, heavy only to the frontispiece and facing title page, which also shows offsetting from the portrait engraving of Burns.

This first Edinburgh edition, preceded only by the rare Kilmarnock edition of 1786, is an enlarged collection, with at least 22 poems appearing herein for the first time. The genesis of the edition strains credulity, reading like a farce. As he was preparing this collection for publication, Burns was facing public censure, shielding his assets (such as they were), and planning emigration to Jamaica over the civil, criminal, and potential physical threats from the furious father of a young woman he had impregnated. In July 1786, publication of 44 poems in Scots and English in the Kilmarnock edition of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect had presented the author "as one who lacked 'all the advantages of learned art' and who, being 'Unacquainted with the necessary requisites for commencing Poet by rule', instead 'sings the sentiments and manners, he felt and saw in himself and his rustic compeers around him, in his and their native language'." Self-deprecation did not diminish the reception; the six hundred copies sold out in a month. "The book had won him intense local admiration among the common people and gentry" and Burns shelved his emigration plans. The poet's refusal to settle a debt to the printer, John Wilson, resulted in the latter's refusal to print a second edition. Hence Burns set off to Edinburgh.

"Late in November 1786 Burns rode to Edinburgh, fêted along the way by lowland farmers who had read his verse." There, "Using his network of masonic connections, as well as other supporters, Burns investigated the likelihood of a new edition of his Poems." Following praise from Edinburgh reviewers, "the influential earl of Glencairn secured the agreement of the hundred or so gentlemen of the Caledonian Hunt that they would all subscribe to a second edition of Burns's Poems, which (with its dedication to the Caledonian Hunt) was published by subscription on 17 April 1787 by the famous and tight-fisted Edinburgh bookseller William Creech, who eventually paid Burns £100 for the copyright." 17 April 1787 is the day that an advertisement appeared in the Edinburgh Advertiser announcing: "This day is published, Price Five Shillings by... William Creech...embellished with the Head of the Author, elegantly engraved by Buego, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect by Robert Burns... it is requested that subscribers will send for their copies, and none will be delivered without money."

This Edinburgh edition "was an immediate success, with ploughman Burns cannily presenting what his preface called 'my wild, artless notes'. Among the new poems added to the volume were the vigorous, slyly modulated Scots poems 'Address to the Unco Guid' and 'Death and Dr Hornbook', as well as the 'Address to Edinburgh', in which Burns on his best behaviour delivers a paean to 'Edina! Scotia's darling seat!'" It may be no surprise that "During winter 1786–7 Burns seems to have engaged in several dalliances (resulting in at least one child) but also met many of Edinburgh's distinguished literati, and was given star treatment."

References: Egerer 2; PMM 373; University of Glasgow; ODNB. Item #008541

Price: $2,500.00

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