EGERTON, Michael

A Day’s Journal of a Sponge.

London: Published for the Proprietor, by Rowney & Forster, 1824. Item #01212

The Profoundly Rare Misadventures of a Free-Loader
Told in Six Beautifully Hand-Colored Aquatint Plates

[EGERTON, Michael]. A Day’s Journal of a Sponge. By Peter Pasquin. London: Published for the Proprietor, by Rowney and Forster, 51, Rathbone Place. 1824.

First edition. Oblong folio (10 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches; 267 x 369 mm.). Printed title-page and six bright and beautifully hand-colored aquatint plates. The plates are unsigned, with imprint: London, Published by W. Egerton, 1824, and do not possess watermarks, as noted by Abbey. Of extraordinary significance and scarcity is the presence of the title page, lacking in the copy Abbey examined, and, as a result, Abbey notes the title simply as Sponge. The title page is missing from the precious few that we have had the opportunity to examine over the last forty years. Houfe notes this volume but under the title Sponge as well.

Original printed drab wrappers. Three inch split to spine foot. Small chip to upper corner of front wrapper. Tear to rear wrapper professionally repaired. Quarter inch stain at bottom edge to first plate not affecting image. Otherwise an excellent copy of a scarce volume. Housed in a blue cloth clamshell case.

OCLC notes only one copy (with title page; ascension no. 78397586) but does not identify the holding institution; no copies located in KVK: A work of profound rarity, rarer still with the title page.

These satiric plates with their lengthy droll and witty captions depict the comic misadventures of a pretentious, social striving man about town free-loader, moocher, muzzler, cadger, touch-artist; a Regency Period slacker who is thick as a brick but convinced otherwise. This work has been attributed by Abbey and Houfe to M[ichael]. Egerton, a social caricaturist who worked in London in the 1820s in the manner of George Cruikshank.


The Plates, untitled but each with three-five lines of text that begin:

1. Was stirring with the lark…
2. Feeling one of those pangs…
3. Having returned, & hired a Chaise…
4. Former fears confirmed…
5. Sauntering down Bond Street…
6. Being recovered from the effects…

Abbey, Life, 289. Houfe, p. 294. Prideaux, p. 347.

Price: $3,800.00