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[Gray, William].
The Rare First Printed History of Newcastle upon Tyne. Chorographia, or A Survey of Newcastle Upon Tine.
Publisher: Printed by J B, London;
Date of Publication: 1649
Stock Code: 6174
First Edition. Small quarto, pp., [8], 34. Annotated to ffep “From the Library of Spence of North Shields” with printed catalogue entry below and note “ Sold at Sotheby’s in Nov 1906” and details of subsequent owners inscribed beneath. The extremely rare First Edition of the first printed history of Newcastle Upon Tyne, which also contains the earliest recorded mention of waggon-ways in England (p.25). The printer of the Chorographia was one Stephen Buckley, the son of Joseph Buckley, the Canterbury bookseller and stationer. The large majority of copies of the Chorographia bear the imprint ‘Newcastle, Printed by S. B. 1649.’ This copy however beards the imprint ‘J. B.’ and the place of printing as London. An ardent Royalist Stephen Buckley fled London in 1642 after printing a ‘particularly unpleasant attack’ upon the Commons and after sheltering in York for four years, set up his press in Newcastle in 1646. He was ‘the first printer who settled down and regularly pursued his calling upon the banks of the Tyne’ (Welford). The title-page of the London and Newcastle copies are identical save for the imprints, so the imprint is spurious as copies bearing London as the place of publication were almost certainly printed in Newcastle and sold to an audience more receptive to a less stridently royalist London printer. After the Restoration Buckley returned to York and it was another fifty years before Newcastle had a resident printer. Rebound in full brown morocco with gilt titles to spine and decorative border to boards; gilt ruling to dentelles. Minor rubbing to edge of boards. Title-page mounted; conservation standard paper repairs to upper corner tips and to outer margin of last leaf; light soiling and age toning throughout. £1250.00