![JOHNSON (SAMUEL, introduction)] Proceedings of the Committee Appointed to Manage the Contributions begun at London Dec. XVIII MDCCL VIII for Cloathing French Prisoners of War, FIRST EDITION, Printed by Order of the Committee, 1760 image 1](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%2Flive%2F2025-10%2F24%2F60154940-1-1.jpg&w=2400&q=75)
![JOHNSON (SAMUEL, introduction)] Proceedings of the Committee Appointed to Manage the Contributions begun at London Dec. XVIII MDCCL VIII for Cloathing French Prisoners of War, FIRST EDITION, Printed by Order of the Committee, 1760 image 2](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%2Flive%2F2025-10%2F24%2F60154940-1-2.jpg&w=2400&q=75)
Lot 120•
JOHNSON (SAMUEL, introduction)] Proceedings of the Committee Appointed to Manage the Contributions begun at London Dec. XVIII MDCCL VIII for Cloathing French Prisoners of War, FIRST EDITION, Printed by Order of the Committee, 1760
Ending from 19 November 2025, 12:00 GMT
Online, London, Knightsbridge£1,000 - £1,500
Ask about this lot
[JOHNSON (SAMUEL, introduction)]
Proceedings of the Committee Appointed to Manage the Contributions begun at London Dec. XVIII MDCCL VIII for Cloathing French Prisoners of War, FIRST EDITION, title and final leaf light soiling, occasional light spotting, modern half calf over marbled boards, spine tooled in gilt with red morocco lettering label [Courtney & Smith, p.99; Hazen. Samuel Johnson's Prefaces & Dedications, p.189-193], small folio (320 x 190mm.), Printed by Order of the Committee, 1760
Footnotes
RARE, Hazen noting that "I doubt any copies were offered for sale", although in the Gentleman's Magazine for February 1760 it was reported that '100 suits of new cloaths' had been distributed.
The Proceedings relate to a charity promoted and managed by the Republican Thomas Hollis (1720-1774, whose portrait bust in the guise of Brutus by Thomas Wilton R.A. is on display at the National Portrait Gallery), for which he attracted large numbers of subscribers whose names, amounts donated and locations are listed. Through the bookseller John Payne Hollis he "commissioned Samuel Johnson to write a concise and masterly preface... Hollis paid five guineas for it at a time when Johnson must often have wondered where the next shilling was coming from" (James Engell, Johnson and His Age, 1984, p.99).