My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fantastic! I love the details of everything that came off the Strawberry Hill press. I also enjoyed Mr. Hazen shine light on forgeries, unauthorized prints and items incorrectly assigned to the press. He covers the history of their printing, citing from various sources, including the original journal of the press done by Horace Walpole. The facsimiles of title pages and other printed items are joyous to behold. This bibliography is true biblio-porn!

I love seeing bibliography used not just as a dry recording method, but as a tool to solve mysteries, date printings, reconstruct history and uncover forgeries. Hazen inspected many copies of each item, comparing fonts, paper, watermarks, etc., to figure out which items were true editions and which came later, produced by Strawberry Hill’s at times unscrupulous printer Thomas Kirgate. For example, Hazen looks closely at an item that was supposed to have been published in 1757 and was quite valuable. Upon inspection, he finds that the font used in this particular edition hadn’t been invented until 1764, hence the piece was done at a later date and “pre-dated” to increase its value (pp. 154-158). This bibliography is full of interesting examples like this one.

For anyone interesting in Strawberry Hill, Horace Walpole, 18th century society, or small press printing, this is a great read.