| Summary: | Niall Kenny description: Excellent copy bound with 3 other pamphlets in original quarter calf; bookplate of Douglas Peter Crossman, and Richard Prime; from Christie's auction 5310 1/9/08; this copy has no edition statement on the title page but is otherwise identical to the 'second edition'. The first edition is usually considered to be 1774, with second thought to be in 1775, 3rd ed. 1776 and other editions c.1777, 1788 and 1789 (latter being by Frobisher, credited to Bracken), but the pagination and imprint of the 1774 edition is the same as the 1776 and the c. 1777 printings, suggesting the 1774 copy was issued between the 2nd and 3rd edition rather than being the first edition. Also this copy and the 2nd edition (see below) state they are printed for the author. Seems to be plagiarisms of Burdon and de Saunier, and has been credited to Bracken (based on an author note in 1789 edition) but all editions are anonymous (although the preface is signed "S"). Probable that Bracken wrote them to accompany Burdon's book, and indeed the later 19th century printings seem to treat them as two parts of the same thing, often publishing both at the same time (see below). This edition and the 2nd have an odd engraving placed in the middle of the title page (in red) of a mask and the statement "The mask is off"; although it seems to lack a leaf this copy retains the original leaf A1, which is clearly blank, and collates exactly with the only other known copy in the BL; All editions very rare with only 1 recorded copy on ESTC of each of the first three printings
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