[ANDERSON, James]. Essays relating to agriculture and rural affairs; in two parts, illustrated with copperplates. By a Farmer … Edinburgh, T. Cadell, 1775.
Two parts bound in one vol., 8vo, pp. xxxiii, [1], 472; with 3 folding copper-plates; a nice copy, bound in full contemporary smooth calf, corners bumped and marks to both boards, raised bands; crack to base of spine, hinges cracked but holding; contrasting morocco label lettered gilt; armorial bookplate of a member of the Pitt family.
First edition of Anderson’s first book on farming. ‘The writer … has aimed in these essays rather to instruct the ignorant by a simple enumeration of a few well established facts, than to amuse the speculative by an idle display of useless ingenuity’ (advertisement).A Scottish gentleman farmer who is fêted today as the inventor of the ‘Ricardian’ theory of rent (in An Enquiry into the Nature of the Corn laws, 1777), Anderson (1739–1808) was employed in 1784 by William Pitt to survey the Scottish fisheries. On the death of his parents in 1754, Anderson had taken over the family farm and had attended lectures at Edinburgh University in order to improve his agricultural knowledge. He received the LLD degree from Aberdeen University in 1780 after publishing a number of essays. He was involved in a number of agricultural publications and ‘is said to have done much for Scotch agriculture’ (DNB).
Provenance: The bookplate in this copy, bearing the arms of Pitt but no name, appears to be the same as number 23680 in the Franks Collection of bookplates, now held in the British Museum. A note attached to that copy, by Franks, suggests that the owner was Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford, (1737–1793). However, Camelford married Anne Wilkinson in 1771. Therefore the appearance of this bookplate, without reflecting a marriage, in a book published in 1775 seems to suggest that he is not the original owner. This leaves a number of possibilities, one among them however is William Pitt ‘the Younger’ (1759–1806), who appointed Anderson to survey the Scottish fisheries early in his premiership.
Goldsmiths’ 11233; Higgs 6213; Kress S.4796; Perkins 47; Rothamsted, p. 13; not in Einaudi.
£550
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