WARD (Mrs. Catherine G., later Mason). The Rose of Claremont, Or Daughter, Wife & Mother. By Catherine G. Ward, Authoress of "The Mysterious Marriage," "The Daughter of St. Omer," "My Native Land," &c. &c. London: Published by J. Tallis, 16, Warwick Square, Newgate Street: and G. Virtue, 6, Cannon Row, Parliament Street, N.D. [but this issue post 1823]. [The Rose Of Claremont Or Daughter, Wife & Mother. Vol.II. London: Pubd. by J. Tallis, 7, Warwick Sqe. Newgate St. Bull [del. et sculpt.] 1821.]. 2 Vols., lge.post 8vo, signed mainly in fours either with the signature letter and number alone or with that plus the title indicator ‘R.C.', whilst a few gatherings are signed also in triplets of four with a parts number; engraved frontispiece and eight plates in volume one, frontispiece and six plates in volume two; each volume with engraved title-page; volume one without the letterpress half-title apparently called for by both the pagination and the signatures, but with the dedication leaf, the second volume without two preliminary leaves allowed for by the pagination, but not by the signatures; pp.[3]-600; [5]-602; early full mottled sheep, ruled gilt on sides, tooled gilt on spine, red label. Slight rubbing of sheep; slight dusting and fingering passim; three plates with neat marginal strengthening on verso; two or three leaves with small tears or chips, not affecting text; otherwise, and in general a nice copy.

This title not in Wolff; Summers, pp.487-8, records the publication details as ‘J. Tallis and G. Virtue, 1820. Another ed., Kelly, 1823'; Block, p.248 says ‘Tallis, [1820]', quoting the British Library copy and two bookshop copies. Both date the work, presumably, from the dedication which is so subscribed; almost certainly the work was originally published in parts, however, and the engraver's imprint on the second title-page is dated 1821. The present copy is of a later issue, the number in Tallis's address on the first engraved title having been altered in the plate from ‘7' to ‘16'. The book also is evidently made up from three different printings of the sheets, the bulk of both volumes being of the issues without a comma after ‘wife' in the headlines, and no parts numbers, but some gatherings of volume two (including the last gathering which bears the imprint of Bartlett and Hinton, Printers Oxford) are of that issue (the final part there being numbered ‘50'); whilst some gatherings in volume one have the title indicator ‘R. C.' as a prefix to the signature marks. The printing signed in triplets of fours and printed by Bartlett and Hinton in Oxford was made for Kelly, as is proved by an integral advertisement leaf in a copy of the Kelly edition we have seen, and is therefore almost certainly later, since Kelly dated that edition 1823; the change of address for Tallis proves the present copy to be also of a later issue, and the fact that it is made up principally of the sheets without either the comma after ‘wife' in the headlines or the title indicator ‘R.C.' in the signatures leads us to suspect that it is in fact the second Tallis and Virtue printing, the one with the indicator ‘R.C.' being probably the first. In this copy the last line on p.561 in volume one has the word ‘were' lacking at the start of the line (issue without comma or ‘R.C.'). The plates to volume one are bound in where called for in the Directions to the Binder note at the end of volume two; those to volume two are bound in to face pp.32, 421, 492, 525, 526, and 573 rather than in the positions indicated in the note. The novel is based on the life of Princess Charlotte Augusta, daughter of George IV.

Click here to return to catalogue of books currently available