Swift (Jonathan) and others broadsides, approximately 1710s-1734, bulk 1724-1733

Printable guide [HTML]
Request items

Summary

Title:
Broadsides by Jonathan Swift and others
Dates:
approximately 1710s-1734, bulk 1724-1733
Abstract:
A bound volume containing 79 manuscript and printed broadsides chiefly from the 1720s and 1730s with satirical, humorous, and political ballads, poems, and prose by various Anglo-Irish writers, dramatists, and clerics including Jonathan Swift (1667-1745). Some of the unattributed manuscript poems and annotations are purported to be by Swift.
Extent:
1 volume
Language:
English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Broadsides by Jonathan Swift and others, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

This bound volume contains 79 manuscript and printed broadsides chiefly from the 1720s and 1730s with satirical, humorous, and political ballads, poems, and prose by various Anglo-Irish writers, dramatists, and clerics including Jonathan Swift (1667-1745). Some of the unattributed manuscript poems and annotations are purported to be by Swift. The volume includes sixteen handwritten items and sixty-three printed texts. The printed items were primarily printed in Dublin, Ireland, with six printed by Dublin printers John Harding and Sarah Harding.

The items are numbered and separated into two parts, each preceded by a contemporary handwritten table of contents. The volume has previously been referred to in print as the Dublin Broadsides. It is bound in a leather binding with the spine title "Broadsides by Swift and others : ms. and printed."

Acquisition information:
Purchased from Frederick R. Halsey by Henry E. Huntington through George D. Smith, December 1915.
Custodial history:

William Robert Wilde's The Closing Years of Dean Swift's Life (1849) references "a rare collection … recently presented to us by our friend George Smith, Esq.," which is described as "a large volume of these ballads, and also of broadsides, both in prose and verse, noted in many places in the handwriting of Swift, and bearing evident marks of having been in his possession. In this volume we also find several unpublished poems, in manuscript, revised and noted in the handwriting of Swift. The whole collection consists of eighty pieces, extending from 1710 to 1734" (page 165). The volume was put up for sale in 1890 by Robson & Kerslake and includes an 1895 bookplate of Swiftian collector Colonel Francis Richard Charles Grant (1834-1899). The volume was sold by Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge on May 9, 1900, as part of the sale of Grant's library. The Huntington Library copy of the sales catalog has a penciled note in the margin of Lot No. 35, "47 ₤ Sabin." Pasted onto the volume's back inside cover are pages from two sales catalogs describing the volume: one from the May 9, 1900, sale, and a second one identified with a pencil note, "331 Aug. 13 1900." The volume was purchased by Henry E. Huntington as part of the sale of the library of Frederick R. Halsey in December 1915.

Processing information:

The printed materials in the volume previously received individual catalog records in the Huntington Online Catalog.

Arrangement:

The items appear to be bound in the volume in general chronological order.

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid prepared by Diann Benti.
Date Prepared:
© 2015
Date Encoded:
Machine readable finding aid encoded by Diann Benti in October 2015 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, please visit the Huntington's website: www.huntington.org.

Terms of access:

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Broadsides by Jonathan Swift and others, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
Website