The poets of Great Britain complete from Chaucer to Churchill.
London : printed for John Bell,
1777-83.
Both titlepages bear the imprint: Edinburg: at the Apollo Press, by the Martins. The engraved collective and letterpress titlepages can vary in date by one year.
Each volume has two letterpress; the first entitled 'The poetical works of .. ' and a statement of the number of volumes in the set and the second with the same title and a list of the contents of the respective volume.
The complete work consists of 109 vols. in no apparent order. The set contains the poetical works of 50 authors.
With engraved titlepages to each volume headed: 'Bell's edition'. In addition to the collective title the engraved titlepage states the name and volume number of each author. The engraved titlepages in the set are found in various states but the date in the imprint is the same. The engraved titlepages to 'The poetical works of Jonathan Swift' are in a different state from the rest of the set; the titlepages to vols.1 and 2 have no edition statement and vol.3 is entitled: 'British poets'. The works of Milton in 4 vols. contain two engraved titlepages, the first containing the collective title only and the second the collective title, author statement and volume number.
The first volume to each set of works (with a few exceptions) has a portrait of the author by Mortimer, Stothard and others. The date of the engraved titlepage and engraved portrait is not always the same.
ESTC