The New Bath Guide: Memoirs of the B-R-D Family. In a series of Poetical Epistles. – Provenance: The History of the Book, Vol. 2

Nullus in orbe Iocus Baiis praelucet amcenis. Hor.

Identification

Author: Christopher Anstey, 1724-1805

Title: The new Bath guide, or, Memoirs of the B–r–d family. In a series of poetical epistles.

Publisher: Printed for J. Dodsley in Pall Mall

Place of Publication: London

Year of Publication: MDCCLXVII (1767)

MSU Call Number: PR3316.A3 N4 1767

“The New Bath Guide” written by Christopher Anstey was written between 1766 and 1830 across 30 editions. The book is a satire on aspects of life in Bath, England, and is also called “Memoirs of the B-R-D family.” It’s possible that, since this is a satire, that the B-R-D family could be an actual family living in Bath at the time, and the dashes in the name are letters and/or vowels omitted. Barnard, perhaps? The novel gained such popularity due to the humor and caricature involved, as well as the accurate and witty descriptions of common scenes of the 18th century. Opposite the title page is an illustration of a fool leading along a family with ropes tied to their noses, further alluding to the satirical nature of this work.

This edition also contains “The Oxford Sausage,” as indicated on the spine. Written by Thomas Warton, in 1764, it is described as “an anthology of verse and Oxford wit.”

Author

Christopher Anstey, born on October 31st, 1724 in Brinkley, Cambrideshire, England, was a poet famous almost exclusively famous for “The New Bath Guide.” He attended Eton and King’s College, and after inheriting an income and settled permanently in 1754 in Bath, a popular vacation locale of the 18th century. Here, he drew inspiration for “The New Bath Guide.”

He married Ann Calvert in 1756 and had two children with her, and lived happily in Bath until his death on August 3rd, 1805, at the age of 80. He is buried at Saint Swithin’s church in Walcot, Bath.

The Book Itself

This book is leather bound and of medium size. I believe that it has been rebound, as the spine is in very good condition and the front and back cover are in moderately good condition. Additionally, the illustration opposite the title page appears to have the right edge cut off, and the writing on the inside back cover is upside down, which leads me to believe that the pages were cut down when the book was being rebound, and that the back cover was accidentaly flipped.

Provenance

On the title page is a small thing of note, it appears that a name of ownership has been cut out, but it is impossible to decipher what this name might have once been.

The first likely (recorded) owner is a W. Tahourdin of Winchester, signed in 1820. I assume this is Winchester, England, as the book was published in 1767 in London, England.

My search for W. Tahourdin did not yield much. I searched William Tahourdin and was met with a Captain V.R Tahourdin who served during World War I and a Commander William Tahourdin who captained the “Orénoque” in 1781. I also discovered a “John Tahourdin White” who was an English classics scholar, and the dates could possibly line up, but I’m not sure why the order of names would be swapped.

Thus, my best idea is that the book belonged to Commander William Tahourdin. Not much is known about him, other than the ships he captained.

The first provenance present is this bookplate on the inside front cover, although I do not believe this to be from its first owner. This is the bookplate of Manning Hawthorne, who has some relation to Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of the famous book “The Scarlet Letter.” A book with a matching nameplate is for sale on Christie’s book sales, where Heather Weintraub claims that Manning Hawthorne is the grandson of Nathaniel Hawthorne, but I could not find any evidence to back this up.

Rather, I believe Manning Hawthorne to be a family collection, as Hawthorne’s mother’s side of the family bore the name Manning. I believe that the Manning-Hawthornes owned this after Commander William Tahourdin, as the book had to have made its way to America to be owned by the family.

This book was once sold by George A Poynder who ran the Second Hand Bookshop on 23 Cross Street, Reading, Pennsylvania.

Unfortunately the bookshop is no longer in business and there seems to be no recorded history of it, nor was I able to find any history on George Poynder.

However, the font and the nature of the sticker leads me to believe that it is a more “recent” placement, relatively speaking, and may have sold the book to W.D. Chase who will be discussed next.

W.D. Chase, Chapel Hill, NC, 5 Nov 1982 penciled in.

William DeRoy Chase was best known for his creation of “Chase’s Annual Events,” which translates today into celebrations such as “National Taco Day.”

Chase lived in Ann Arbor for most of his life, but was born in Lakeview, Michigan on April 8th, 1922. The interesting part about this, dear reader, is that I myself was born in Lakeview, Michigan. The village of Lakeview has a population that fluctuates between 800-1,000, so this is no common coincidence.

According to Chase’s obituary, he graduated from the University of Michigan with Bachelors and Masters degrees in geography. During World War II he worked in the Far East Division of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), and with the U.S. Air Force Aeronautical Chart Service. In 1966 he spent 3 months in Vietnam as an advisor to Vietnam Press in the U.S. State Department’s American Specialist Program. He began working for the Flint journal after, where he started Apple Tree Press and published Bernard Shaw’s Last Will and Testament as well as Chase’s Calendar of Events. Chase’s became a respected reference guide to events, activities, space milestones, presidential proclamations and more.

He died March 2nd, 2020, at his home in Ann Arbor. He was 97.

Bits of paper in the back of the book show that an owner (presumably Chase) did research on other editions of the book.

It is unclear to me how this book ended up in MSU’s special collections. Due to MSU’s reputation and knowledge of W.D. Chase, it is likely that books in his collection were either donated to or purchased by MSU libraries. I was unable to find any records.