A truly scarce piece of early, illustrated Americana, only ever offered once we can trace in either the trade or the auction history. The ony other example was offered by Bonhams, then the only known surviving example. Their example was significantly incomplete, including having the final number of the date on the title page obscured. They were able to read 179*, but were uncertain of the final digit. A 1792 inscription on the flyleaf led them to catalog it as published in that year.
Our example, which is entirely textually complete, bears the identical title page, but with the complete date, i.e. 1791. It is more than likely theirs was the 1791 edition as well, and this likely the only edition with the present woodcuts.
The auctioneer described the significance of this exceptional piece of early American printing as follows:
This American edition, printed by William Durell in New-York in 1792 (dated from inscription, last figure of date obscured from tile page), appears to contain new engravings from its earlier British counterparts. Interestingly, American engraver Alexander Anderson was working for Durell during the period (from diary entries in 1793), most notably on Durell's The Whole, Genuine and Complete Works of Flavius Josephus (1792-1794), and Anderson was engraving in New York as early as 1791. A nearly complete copy of a heretofore unknown rarity. For the early history of Alexander Anderson, see Pomeroy "Alexander Anderson: Life and Engravings before 1800," and Alexander Anderson, 1775-1870, Wood Engraver and Illustrator, an Annotated Bibliography.
Their description is intimating or attributing the woodcuts to be those of Anderson. This would make them the earliest New York woodcuts of this important American artist and the only complete suite of them extant. Worthy of preservation and distribution for scholarly research.
Burton, Robert. (Pseud. Nathaniel Crouch. c.1632-1675). Youth's Divine Pastime. New-York: Printed and sold by W. Durell, at No 19 Queen Street, 1791.
The Bonhams example contained 104 of 108pp lacking pp.15-16 and 33-34 entirely and with significant losses to pp.13-14 and 17-18.
The present example textually complete. The binding lacks a front board and spine entirely, with only a very worn rear board remaining [mineral blue over wood]. Mispaginated, we suspect as usual, but complete with period handling of pages as shown.
