Description
Hardcover. Very Good. First Edition, First State. 2 volumes rebound in red leather with marbled endpapers (early to mid-20th century). Small Octavo, ~4 ¾ x 7”; v.1 288 pp, v.2 263 pp; missing 36 pp of advertisements at end. Ex libris Robert Sneath Cain (1878-1961), a prominent Pittsburgh citizen. Born in Scotland, he was a decorated war veteran who served Allegheny County as Commissioner, Sheriff, and Treasurer. An autobiography of the English actor, comedian, and dancer, perhaps the most celebrated entertainer of Regency England, who transformed the role of Clown in the harlequinade. Edited and partially rewritten by “Boz,” a young Charles Dickens, who as a boy had seen Grimaldi on the stage. With an engraved frontispiece portrait of Grimaldi and 10 very fine etched plates by Dickens’ friend and collaborator George Cruikshank, 5 in each volume (missing 2). At rebinding, the volume was interleaved with five playbills from Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, from 1814-1817. An extraordinary find.
