‘The Daredevil Aeronaut’, Vincent Lunardi’s account of his first balloon flights made in Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh in a collection of pamphlets which was owned by a leading Newcastle attorney and Clerk of the Peace, Thomas Davidson, who seems likely to have acquired this book in connection with Lunardi’s disastrous subsequent balloon ascent out of Newcastle that year. This flight caused the death of one of Lunardi’s assistants on September 9th when he plunged to his death after being dragged skywards by a rope trailing from the balloon. Keeping Lunardi’s narrative company in this volume is a rare printed account of a fracas caused by the actress Mrs Elizabeth Kemble at Newcastle Theatre Royal in 1789 (no copies in the UK) when she decided not to appear at short notice, and a similar narrative from Edinburgh - both items relate neatly to Davidson’s role as a Justice of the Peace. The fourth text is Steven’s famous Lecture on Heads - at last some recreation for the hard-working lawyer.
Thomas Davidson was a collector of stamp duties, a powerful figure in Newcastle and Berwick and his bookplate designed by Ralph Beilby (master and then partner of Thomas Bewick) appears on the front pastedown. Additionally Davidson has listed by hand the ‘Tracts in this Volume opposite and corrected the errata in the Lecture on Heads as well as signing three of the four items. Although the Lunardi imprint is much the most commercially valuable of the tracts, its appearance alongside three other items all of which are plausibly linked to events in which a provincial Justice of the Peace like Thomas Davidson would take a lively interest, is altogether more interesting. Provenance: acquired privately from a vendor with links to the Eadington family of Bamburgh in Northumberland.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:
Small octavo (19x13cm) in a binding contemporary with the book of half calf over marbled boards with the imprint of two spine labels, both now absent. A little rubbing but to the marbled paper on the lower board but a very good copy in generally excellent condition with the traces of prior stab-sewing throughout. Davidson’s bookplate by Ralph Beilby, see Tattersfield, Bookplates 1999, pp108-109. The four imprints appear as follows:
1. Vincent Lunardi, An Account of Five Aerial Voyages in Scotland, 1786, Printed by the Author, J Bell: frontispiece and 2 plates; frontispiece trimmed affecting Burke’s portrait along the outer margin; bound without the half title; pp3-6; pp 114 [2], concluding with the ‘Explanation of the Plate’. A single pencil annotation to margin of p49 with double lines highlighting the ‘terrible alarm’ caused by the balloon’s landing - perhaps Davidson was put in mind of the mayhem caused by Lunardi’s Newcastle flight? Old stab sewing holes visible in gutter.
2. James Fennell, A Statement of Facts Occasional and Relative to the Late Disturbances at the Theatre-Royal in Edinburgh, Second Edition, [1788] John and James Ainslies, pp56; BL 2 copies only: OCLC: 560005479; ‘Thomas Davidson Newcastle’ on title page; stab sewing in gutter.
3. Thoughts on the Late Disturbances at the Theatre-Royal, Newcastle, 1789, M Brown, Yale, Harvard, North Carolina, OCLC: 613460263, pp20; browning to text; old stab sewing in gutter; ‘Thos Davidson 8th April, 1799’ to half title - the text debates the impact of Mrs Elizabeth Kemble’s sudden decision not to play as planned in Newcastle.
4. George Alexander Stevens, A Lecture on Heads, 1785, G Kearsley, ‘Thos Davidson’ to title page, preceded by folding plate. viii, viii, pp116 with advert leaf; errata corrected by Davidson.
