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Notes
| 1731 | 1732 | 1733 | |||||||||
| Title gathering: | Jan | Feb | Mar | May | July | Aug | Sep | May | July | Feb | Mar |
| N-P | G-H | G-I | G-H | G-H | G-H | G,I | L-M | CDF | CM | N | |
| 1st signed gathering: | I-J | I-J | J-K | I-K | I-J | I-K | J-K | J | L-M | L,N | L |
Apart from the 288 monthly numbers (1731-1754) some copies have, after July 1735, a "Magazine Extraordinary" and, beginning with the 1733 volume, all include—or should include—an annual "Supplement." Another special number on Baronets Arms, cumulating in parts from 1750, is noted in Table VI under entry for 1754, the year it was completed.
Nichols, pp. lxvi, lxxiii. The earlier fire, as reported in GM (May 1786, p. 437), levelled the house of Mrs. Elizabeth Newbery, whose name thus is omitted in the imprints to the general titles for this year. The later disaster reduced to ashes Nichols' own printing-office, all of his extensive warehouses, and with these "the Entire Stock of the Gentleman's Magazine from 1782 to 1807" (GM, February 1808, p. 99).
GM, May 1809, pp. 474, 486. Smeeton was then 50, his wife Elizabeth only 25, and the two of them married just three months before. The 1806 edition, printed for Machell Stace, reproduces on titles two different woodcuts, the one to be identified as (b) in the numbers for January-April 1731, January-June 1732, and the other described as (h) in the numbers for May-December 1731, July-December 1732. As this division would indicate, the printing was split, the first part of each volume representing the work of Smeeton (whose imprint appears on the two general titles), the second part the labor of W. Smith (imprint on last page of the indexes).
The price is given in the imprint for all the earlier editions. The only copy I have seen in wrappers is the number for June 1752 at the Boston Public Library (*7227.16).
In Table IV it will be noted that the typographical state of an original edition later number establishes the same chronology of later variants first number: 2d ed. in March, 3d ed. in July, 4th ed. (not cited in these announcements) about February 1732, and 5th ed.—the reprinting for the "fourth time"—not before August 1733. As for the "fifth time," the reference perhaps is to some resetting, as indicated first note to the Table.
These wrappers, not seen, are mentioned in the preliminary notices, verso of titles for November and December 1731.
Like the regular issue of February 1732 (see note 9), the first number original large paper issue is labelled "Fourth Edition." In the only specimen seen of this, the Texas-Griffith copy (G), the chainlines are 30mm. apart as against 26mm. for ordinary paper. The later large paper issue, bearing "Sixth Edition" label, is known to me only by a cut-down specimen, the Yale-Lewis copy (L). In volumes I-IV this is appreciably thicker than ordinary paper issue, bulking 39, 45, 50, 53mm.
This estimate derives from various prices entered for other but similar work in Strahan's printing ledger. In 1734 the Magazine was normally issued in seven half-sheets, or 56 pages a number. For 3½ full sheets, &c.mmat; 1000 copies, the basic cost would therefore be about 18s.4d. for composing and reading, 9s.4d for presswork, £4-16-0 for 14 reams of paper, £1 for stitching, 2s.6d for wrappers. Retaining the first figure as a constant, and multiplying the others by 9, gives a total £58-8-10 for 9000 copies, or slightly less than a guinea a page.
More because the new subscribers of 1732-1734, besides outnumbering the dropouts, would many of them have little interest in back numbers, or any reprints of these.
This count is less the three certain and two suspected "Fifth Edition" copies printed later for E. Cave. The "Sixth" editions (30 and 7 copies), as well as the 1806 facsimile (18), are also, of course, of later date.
Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. G. B. Hill and L. F. Powell (1934), I, 112, n.1; 152, n.1. The first reference also indicates that the fifth edition came out in the ninth year, or 1740. The first number so labelled, however, is of a typographical state appearing only between August and October 1733.
The reports, limited to a description of the January 1731 title, come from an extended postal campaign undertaken to discover the whereabouts of any first edition copies. The three specimens eventually disclosed are described in note 19.
It is of course impractical to take into account widely variant mixtures as these may occur (1) from number to number, in later replacements before binding, or (2) from volume to volume, in sets made up from different bound collections. The PPL-R copy illustrates both conditions: 1731 consists of February-December numbers in first edition (sequence A-B) but January of a sixth (L-M); 1732 volume is of still another order, corresponding throughout to sequence J.
Though also issued, like N-P, about 1786, series Q does not conform even to this irregular pattern, exhibiting in the following numbers a mixture of settings appropriate to the copies identified.
Set "A," at North Texas State University, is the only one displaying both a first edition of the original number and the earlier issue of the second number. This copy, now in modern library buckram, is of unknown provenance. Set "B," at Syracuse University, New York, is in 18th-century binding and bears on front endpaper, first volume, a pencilled note "The Gentlemans Magazine belonging to Thomas Gellman August 13 in the year 1762." The third set, at Smith College, Massachusetts, was purchased by James Bain 22 March 1881. An accompanying note indicates, however, that volumes 1 (1731) and 42 n.s. (1854, July-December) were supplied at a later time, and presumably from another source.
Copy "C," in my possession, apart from representing (as previously remarked) a complete set of illustrations, has stabholes throughout as evidence of a monthly accumulation, the first two numbers of a second edition, the third and all later numbers apparently of the first impression or edition. This is also, so far as I am aware, the only set not once but doubly certified as of an unbroken and unmixed sequence extending from the 18th century. The first owner of record was Charles Wigan of Stanford, Middlesex, who on 3 April 1776 purchased the 45 volumes already cumulated and signed the first page of text in every volume then and thereafter completed to the time of his death 23 May 1802 (GM, p. 586). Apparently the set was then bequeathed to a granddaughter Mary Wigan who, on 29 September 1803, also signed and with few exceptions dated the whole series, all this it would seem with the intent of establishing the collection as a dowry offered at the time of her marriage 8 October to George Daniel Harvey (GM, 1803, p. 1252), a barrister-at-law and commissioner of bankruptcy. Harvey then affixed his bookplate to the first volume only and maintained the subscription to 1810, about the time of his death. Compared throughout against "C" are sets G, the I-K specimen at Texas, M, and P.
Nichols' recollection (pp. lix, lxii) that 100 sets were perfected in 1783 would appear to be confirmed by his Magazine preface dated 22 January 1783 (in the 1782 volume): "On the First of February next will begin to be republished in Monthly Volumes (Price Six Shillings and Six Pence each Volume, neatly sewed in Boards), the Gentleman's Magazine from . . . M.DCC. XXX [sic] to M.DCC.LXXX. with an Index complete." Apart from the 100 he intended to perfect it was also noted, in a postscript, that "a Few will be printed over, to perfect the Sets of former Purchasers." However, Nichols seems to have forgotten the subsequent delay curiously excused in 1786 (p. vi of preface to 1785 volume): "The Perfidy of knavish Servants, who stole, and sold for Waste Paper, what will cost much Time and Expence to prepare again for the Public, has unavoidably occasioned a longer Interruption than we could possibly foresee." Thus the (h2) reprints could not have been issued before 1786 and may have been further delayed to 1789, the date the Index finally appeared.
January: gathering B, 7 none or 1; C, none or 15-1 or 18-1; D-E, invariably 24-1, 39-1. Half-sheet C, when figured, has pages 13-14 reset, with catchword "no" now first introduced. February: 15 combinations so far observed with none or one or other of these figures: 66-6 or 9, 74-6 or 2, 75-6, 82-2 or 3, 90-2 or 3 or 9, 110-3, 3 reversed, or 9. December: mostly invariant, title-3, 641-τ, 660-τ or none, 668-τ or ¶ or none.
There are twelve periods still ranging from four to six months: May-August 1736, June-December 1737, September-December 1738, July-December 1739, March-June 1740, June-September 1744, February-June 1745, September-December 1746, March-July and August-December 1750, January-July 1752, May-October 1753. In the present analysis several variants issued within these intervals may therefore go undetected.
Now evident, as Mr. Leed notes, in headline breakage first several gatherings and also, it might be added, by the position p. 61 of gathering number 1 (A1) below and after of, (A2) below i of Difference.
Some copies of the September number have second doublet inserted within the first. Perhaps to obviate such disarrangements the GM, beginning with this number, carries for each issue a separate sequence of gathering numbers.
In October only, the fold is signed on 2d leaf, and in both settings, Ttt appearing, in one (d) 16 under and to the left of H in Hence, in the other (e) 17 under a of any.
Unlike the reimpressions or resettings previously considered, where the later variant (as a limited supplementary issue) appears only once or twice in a score of copies, an alternate setting will occur in about every other specimen and, through a sequence of numbers, in various combinations. As it happens, copies C and N regularly alternate between (e) and (d) settings. The reverse alternation, also coincidental, is exhibited for 1734 in copies E, L, P, for 1735-1736 in copy G.
"Pramsteer", though possibly representing (like certain others in these lists) a periodical no longer extant, is more likely to be a misreading of, or punning allusion to the paper correctly spelled in alternate title.
The warning applicable everywhere, and implicit in an earlier note (18), may here be registered against sophisticated copies. The TxU set now has titles affixed to leaves once conjugate to the alternate, September (d) 17 to 'vase' and November (d) 18 to 'vase'.
Copy G, (d) 18 variant, is also reimpressed in first half-sheet, p. 629 gathering number 1 originally below g in general, here to left of g.
Other points: 1734. Jan, Feb, Dec, variant press figures (see note 22). April, copy M a later setting, 2 (e)20. Sep-Nov, duplicate setting first two leaves (see prelim comment). Suppl, copy D, partially reset, sig. under in of Standing. 1735. After July some copies a 'Magazine Extraordinary,' (d) 19/ D. Gazetteer/ vase. Title verso Nov 1746 announces a 'further impression' of this, not discovered. Sep, Nov duplicate setting first two leaves (see prelim comment). 1736. Mar, duplicate setting first two leaves (see prelim comment).
Other points: 1737. Feb, copies M, P second issue with 3 line note below Contents, Register at end listing 35 books. 1738. Suppl. 2d impression has p. 681 misnumbered 645 (see Leed article). 1739. Jan, copy G lacks sig. but like others has gathering number below second n of Entertainment.
Points: 1741. Jan, copy G later setting in the following year, (e)2011 (see prelim comment). 1742. Jan-Mar, Aug-Nov, variant settings &c. (see prelim comment).
Points: 1744. Jan, copy M of later setting, (e1)2015. Apr, some copies have sig. shifted slightly to left. 1745. As indicated by following points, two numbers revised and partially reset. Sept, 1st word, col. 2, pp. 500, 501: (copy C) Cokayne/ most, (TxU) Cokayne/ gaged, (P, reset) which/ most, and italic note title verso extended from 6 to 9 lines. Oct, p. 557 ends: (C,P) and suburbs, (TxU) to Edinburgh. Preface to volume announces a (further?) reimpression of October.
Other points: 1746. Four variant nos in copy P, the first reimpressed throughout, the others revised and partially reset. Feb, sig. p. 73 under 2d d of deed / (P) under i of in. May, p.257 last line: nally successful. / (P) finally successful .Sept, p. 479 ends: to liberty. / (P) and toes. Oct, p.519 last line begins: formidable / (P) midable. 1747. Suppl, [597] prelim par. in 2 states ending (C) on the same. / (P) S. Urban. 1748. Dec, copy P later impression correcting errata noted p. 536.
Other points: 1750. July, p. 323 poem "In Conjugem Mortuam" ends "imago viget" in several copies examined; but erratum note, title verso, indicates last word missing "in some books." Suppl, alternate setting first text has urn ornament and gathering number below and to left of with. See also entry for 1754. 1751. Jan, some copies omit sig, but gathering number same position under a of Mag. See also entry for 1754.
Other points: 1752-53. See note for 1754. 1753. Suppl, in some copies gathering number shifted to right, under e only. 1754. Plates of Baronets Arms, supplied with the volumes for 1750-53, were ordinarily "reserved" according to directions to the binder until the sequence was complete, and then, as specified verso of title to 1754, placed "in proper Order at the End" of this volume with accompanying letterpress. This extra number, in complete form, collates in quarter-sheets: A-G2 I-L2 + plates numbered I-XXVIII.
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