The analysis of beauty. Written with a view of fixing the fluctuating ideas of taste. By William Hogarth

People / Organizations
Imprint
London : printed by J. Reeves for the author, and sold by him at his house in Leicester-Fields, MDCCLIII. [1753]
Added name
Reeves, John, -1767, printer.
Publication year
1753
ESTC No.
T2690
Grub Street ID
258861
Description
xxii, [2], 153, [5] p., II leaves of plates : ill. ; 4°.
Note
With a final leaf (p. [157-158]) containing "Figures referr'd to in the book."

The leaf of "Figures referr'd to in the book" was printed shortly after some copies were distributed to subscribers; an advertisement in the Public advertiser, 17 December 1753, states: "Those gentlemen who subscribed for the above work, and have already received it, are desired to send to the author for an additional leaf, which is intended for the more easy finding such passages in the book, as relate to the figures in the prints." The leaf is found bound in various places in the book, not always at the end

According to Paulson, p. 220, "The prints were first distributed to subscribers or sold separately around the date given in the publication line" (i.e. about 5 March 1753). The subscription ticket and various advertisements for the work state that the prints are "fit to frame for furniture"; if the prints were so treated, the copy they were intended to accompany will not contain the plates, though they were clearly intended to be issued with the book. Paulson also states: "All the subscribers copies of the book I have seen lack the folded-in plates" (noting one exception, Horace Walpole's copy); he does not indicate how many or which copies he has seen

A print, "Columbus breaking the egg," was used as the subscription ticket for the work; either the ticket or a later state of the print, with the subscription information removed and a publication line added (1 December 1753), is found as a frontispiece in some copies, though there is no evidence for the statement by Burke (p. ix) that the later state was "usually bound as a frontispiece"

"Prints publish'd by W. Hogarth, and are to be had at his house in Leicester Fields": p. [154-155]

Page [156] is blank

Facsimile edition: Ilkley, Yorkshire: Scolar Press, 1969 (reprinted 1972, 1974).