High Treason!! The Whole Proceedings on the Trial of Arthur..

1817. With a Duplicate Colored Frontispiece Annotated by George Cruikshank [Trial]. Thistlewood, Arthur [1770-1820], Defendant. Watson, James, Defendant. Preston, Thomas, Defendant. Hooper, John, Defendant. [Cruikshank, Isaac (1764-1811), Illustrator]. [Cruikshank, George (1792-1878), Annotation]. High Treason!! The Whole Proceedings on the Trial of Arthur Thistlewood, Gent. James Watson, The Elder, Surgeon, Thomas Preston, Cordwainer, And John Hooper, Labourer: Upon an Indictment Found Against Them for High Treason. Fairburn's Edition. London: [Printed by W. Marchant ; published by John Fairburn, 1817]. 23 parts, comprising 360 numbered columns. Folding frontispiece, two plates. Complete. Octavo (9" x 5-3/4"). Original plain paper-covered publisher boards with contrasting spine, untrimmed edges. Some soiling and staining, moderate edgewear, spine abraded and worn, front board detached, early owner signature (L. Palmer) and later owner bookplate of William Hartmann Woodin to front pastedown. Moderate toning to text, minor oil stains and dampstains to a few leaves. Brief annotations in pencil to front pastedown and verso folding plates, both entry references to Douglas's Works of George Cruikshank, interior otherwise clean. Duplicate of folding frontispiece, hand-colored, and with an annotation by George Cruikshank laid in. It is lightly soiled, lightly edgeworn and beginning to tear along fold lines, later reference annotation to Douglas bibliography to top margin. Items housed in a quarter-morocco over cloth slipcase with raised bands and gilt title to spine. Moderate rubbing to extremities. A unique copy of a rare title. $950. * Only edition. Thistlewood, Watson, Preston and Hooper were leaders of the Spencians, a group of English radicals who opposed private land ownership. They were indicted for treason when a mass audience at a Spencian rally at Spa Fields, Islington, England on 15 November and 2 December 1816 degenerated into a riotous mob. Watson was acquitted and the other three were released without trial. Fairburn's serialized account features a courtroom scene and portraits of the defendants by Isaac Cruikshank, who is not credited. The colored duplicate frontispiece has an annotation by his son George Cruikshank reading: "Not any of it by me-GCK." This remark illustrates how the work of the two men were often.