Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Lot 95

LOCKE (JOHN)
An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE with type ornament on the title composed of thirty pieces, and Elizabeth Holt's name in the imprint, Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, 1690

15 June 2016, 14:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £19,375 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

[LOCKE (JOHN)]

An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE with type ornament on the title composed of thirty pieces, and Elizabeth Holt's name in the imprint, neat early ink annotations in the wide margins throughout, and a couple of corrections to the text, calf antique, gilt morocco spine label [Pforzheimer 599; PMM 164; Wing L2738], folio (320 x 190mm.), Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, 1690

Footnotes

FIRST EDITION, FIRST STATE of Locke's "remarkably wide field of investigation into human knowledge: it is the first modern attempt to analyse it" (PMM). Locke began working on the Essay in 1671, continuing during his extended stays in France and the Netherlands, and by 1686 "it existed in a form fairly close to what was published in 1690" (ODNB). Pforzheimer notes that "The importance of few philosophical books have been so quickly recognized as was the case of the present Essay".

Provenance: R. Styleman, early ownership inscription in upper corner of title; Robert Dixon, ownership inscription on front free and final blank endpaper.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

A Presentation Copy of Kennedy's First Book to Spencer Tracy. Kennedy, John F. 1917-1963. Why England Slept. New York: Wilfred Funk, Inc., 1940.

Signed to Spencer Tracy 1952 Hemingway, Ernest. 1899-1961. The Old Man and the Sea, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952.

CORNELIUS, MATTHEWS, editor. 1817-1889. The Enchanted Moccasins and Other Legends of the American Indians.