Some Account of the Worshipful Company of Grocers, of the City of London by Heath, John Benjamin - 1829

London: Privately printed. Very Good+. 1829. First Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. viii, 358 & [1] pages; Contemporary full polished calf, tobacco brown, covers paneled with incised lines in blind, decorative devices stamped in the corners and the panels of the spine, title lettered in gilt in the second panel, marbled endpapers, all edges decoratively stained red. Minor rubbing, but still quite handsome and solid. Engraved frontispiece depicting a figure of Saint Anthony, from a carving in the Grocers Hall, engraved title page, with a device of the heraldic crest of the Company of Grocers and the date 1829, beneath which is the notation "Not Published," full page engraved plate of the Grocers Hall (as it had been restored after the Great Fire of London 1666). Errata slip pasted to the gutter margin of the last leaf of text. There are modern paper "repairs" to the upper corners of the engraved frontispiece and the first leaf of the dedication -- a small portion of the margin of pp. 99-100 show some minor abrasions (no holes evident). While these facts clearly suggest that an effort to disguise a previous provenance has been made -- no evidence remains of the precise markings. Taken on its face, this remains a handsome copy in an appropriate full calf binding of quality. This is the first edition -- with the printer's slug on the last leaf, otherwise blank: "LONDON / W. Marchant, Printer, Ingram Court." The two subsequent editions were printed in 1854 and 1869 -- the latter was executed at the Chiswick Press. An important account of the oldest of London's Great Twelve City Livery Companies. The author was the son of another successful London merchant, and the grandson of Benjamin Heath [1704-66] classical scholar and book collector. Heath attended Harrow School, along with the slightly older George Gordon Lord Byron -- (Heath acted as his underclassman "servant", according to a number of sources). After serving as Master of the Grocers Company, Heath became a Governor of the Bank of England, then subsequently Deputy Governor 1843-1844, Governor of the Bank, 1845-1847. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1832 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1843. See Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature 26051. Kress Library S.6479. .