Blackguardiana: or, A Dictionary of Rogues, Bawds, Pimps, Whores, Pickpockets, Shoplifters ... with ... Portraits of the Most Remarkable Professors in Every Species of Villany. Interspersed with Many Curious Anecdotes, Cant Terms, Flash Songs, etc. [London]: "John Shepherd, Sir John Falstaff, Sir Henry Morgan ... Mary Cut-Purse" [et al.], c.1793.
8vo (210 x 126 mm). [2], vii, [235] pp. 21 engraved plates, title page vignette, head and tail pieces. Early 19th-century calf, gilt floral devices and rule to spine. Dampstaining to title and last few leaves and some dampstaining to margins throughout, finger-soiling to some margins, tears to edges of a few plates affecting the image in two instances, f.f.e.p. starting, joint of upper board cracked, fissuring to spine.
Provenance: Clive Coates of Helperby (ownership signature to front-free endpaper, "C.C." bookplate to front pastedown endpaper).

FIRST EDITION OF A VERY RARE 18TH-CENTURY WORK ON ENGLISH SLANG, interspersed with tales and biographical sketches of notable blackguards. Though the title page calls for 18 portraits, the present copy contains 21. A note at the foot of the title page - intended, no doubt, to induce purchase - states, "only a few copies of this work are printed;" however at least one pirated edition of the work is known, and copies listing "20" and "21" portraits on the title page appear in 19th-century auction records. ESTC notes that the imprint of the present edition is false, as obvious by its spurious list of publishers; Caulfield is identified as the printer on a number of the plates dated 1792 or 1793. ABPC records only one copy appearing at auction in the last thirty years. ESTC T95154.