SHAFTESBURY'S CHARACTERISTICKS, 1773 FIRST BASKERVILLE EDITION

SHAFTESBURY, Anthony, Earl of. Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times. Birmingham: John Baskerville, 1773. Three volumes. Octavo, 19th-century full tan calf, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, brown morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers. $3000.

First Baskerville edtiion (fifth overall), corrected and enlarged, handsomely bound by Ringer.

Characteristicks collects Shaftesbury's essays on a wide range of philosophical and cultural topics. "He is usually regarded as one of the principal English deists, and he argued (both against orthodox Christianity and against Hobbes) that we possess a natural `moral sense' and natural affections directed to the good of the species and in harmony with the larger cosmic order… Leibniz, Voltaire, Diderot and Lessing were among those attracted by his work" (Magnusson, 1332).

The printer John Baskerville built up a fortune manufacturing japanned ware. While printing was only ever his hobby, he dedicated himself to it fully, cutting his own type and fashioning his own presses and ink. He financed the enterprise, which was never commercially successful, with the proceeds of his japanning business. Over the course of nearly 20 years and 56 titles, he made a name for himself as one of the premier printers of fine editions in the 18th century, seeking always to print not "many books; but such only, as are of consequence, of intrinsic merit, or established Reputation, and which the public may be pleased to see in elegant dress" (Art of the Printed Book, 26). With frontispiece portrait in Volume I and engraved vignette title pages. Gaskell 49.

A beautifully printed volume, handsomely bound. FIX.