The Complete Works, FRANKLIN (Benjamin).

in Philosophy, Politics, and Morals of the Late Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Now First Collected and Arranged: with Memoirs of his Early Life, Written by Himself.

Three engraved title-pages, frontispiece portrait, nine folding plates, one folding table, one double-page plate, three single page plates.

First Edition. Three volumes. 8vo. [213 x 135 x 100 mm]. xiv, [ii], 440, [36] pp; vi, 468 pp; vi, [ii], 552 pp. Bound in contemporary half calf, marbled paper sides, smooth spines divided into six panels by a gilt pallet, lettered in the second and numbered in the fourth, the others with a central ornament, plain endleaves, lightly sprinkled edges. (Joints, headcaps and tips of the corners worn).
London: printed [by J. Cundee] for J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church-Yard, and Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, Paternoster-Row, 1806.

Occasional light spotting or browning and dust soiling, including to a few of the plates, but a good copy. The bindings show some signs of wear but are sound and attractive. With the booklabel of Mr Paxton of Cholderton House, near Salisbury in Wiltshire. The house was built in 1690 and recently rebuilt after a devastating fire in 2012. The neighbouring St. Nicholas Church has an L-shaped front pew designed to enable Mr Paxton to sit with his back to the wall as he was averse to having people sitting immediately behind him.

Franklin's works were first brought together in 1751, in a pamphlet which consisted of letters on the subject of electricity. This was enlarged in 1752 and again in 1754. In 1766 letters on the subject of philosophy were added. In 1779 another collection was printed of papers which had not appeared in the previous editions of Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces. In 1787 a third collection of Philosophical and Miscellaneous Papers appeared, followed in 1793 by two volumes of his Works [...] Consisting of his Life written by himself, together with Essays, Humorous, Moral & Literary, chiefly in the manner of the Spectator. The present edition combines all of these previously published works, including some published for the first time in England.

Stock no. ebc8059