Letters Written by the Late Right Honourable Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, to His Son, Philip Stanhope, Esq; Together with Several Other Pieces on Various Subjects.

STANHOPE, Eugenia.

$1,500.00

Item Number: 141377

London: Printed for J. Dodsley, 1774.

First edition of one of the great classics of English letters. Quarto, period quarter calf over marbled boards with morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, engraved portrait frontispiece. Second state of volume one, page 55 (line 16 corrected to “qui auroit”). From the library of Sir Edwyn Francis Stanhope with his bookplate to the pastedown of each volume. Sir Edwyn Francis Stanhope, 2nd Baronet (1793 -1874), was the only son of Sir Henry Edwyn Stanhope, 1st Baronet of Stanwell, a distinguished naval commander, and Margaret (Peggy), daughter of Francis Malbone Esq. of Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.A. Stanhope served as a midshipman on the Surveillante on the coast of France in 1810, was promoted Lieutenant of the Castor, which cruised the coast of Catalonia in 1813 -1814, and was promoted Commander in 1814. In the same year he succeeded his father in the Baronetcy. He married, 20 January 1820, Mary, daughter of Major Thomas Dowell of Parker’s Well in Devon. On 17 January 1826 he assumed by royal license the additional name and arms of Scudamore. His eldest son, Henry Edwyn Chandos Scudamore Stanhope, succeeded to the Earldom of Chesterfield in 1883. In very good condition. An exceptional example with noted provenance.

When Lord Chesterfield's illegitimate son turned five, the Earl began to write a series of letters of advice and fatherly wisdom to him. Though never intended for publication, these letters became extremely popular after Chesterfield's death, published, somewhat scandalously, by the younger Stanhope's widow, Eugenia.