An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

SMITH (Adam).

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

Four volumes. 12mo. viii, 304; iv, 286; iv, 284, [4, Appendix]; iv, 280 pp., engraved frontispiece portrait of the author after the Tassie Medallion to Vol. 1. Contemporary half calf with marbled paper covered boards, flat spines panelled with double-gilt rules, second and fourth panels lettered in gilt on brown morocco labels, the rest with simple gilt devices (occasional browning and faint browning throughout each volume, offsetting from frontis to title of Vol. 1; minor surface wear to spines, corners only slightly rubbed, notwithstanding an excellent copy). Glasgow, R. Chapman, 1805.

£2,000.00

A charming copy of this four-volume duodecimo edition of the ‘first and greatest classic of modern economic thought’ (PMM), being the earliest edition to be published in Scotland, and the first to include a portrait of the author. The engraved frontispiece portrait is based on a side-profile portrait medallion of Smith made in 1787 by the distinguished Scottish stonemason and gem engraver James Tassie (1753-1799).

Originally published in 1776, ‘The Wealth of Nations had no rival in scope or depth when published and is still one of the few works in its field to have achieved classic status, meaning simply that it has sustained yet survived repeated reading, critical and adulatory, long after the circumstances which prompted it have become the object of historical enquiry’ (ODNB).

Tribe, 86.

Stock No.

255265

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An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

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