THE QUEEN'S CHAMELEON: The Life of John Byrom. A study of Conflicting Loyalties.
Pp. [xii]+276, frontispiece portrait, plus 11 plates (one double page), text illustrations and facsimiles, family trees, notes, bibliography, index; med. 8vo; maroon boards, spine lettered in gilt, a couple of tiny bruises to edges of boards; dust wrapper, a trifle foxed on flaps and reverse faintly soiled; book label of David Levine, Sydney, on upper pastedown, edges of leaves faintly foxed; Jonathan Cape, London, 1994. First edition. *'John Byrom (1691-1763) was an enigma: a playboy, a philosopher, a poet, and possibly a spy. He was an active and secret Jacobite who had an affair with Queen Caroline, yet her husband, George II, unaware of the traitor at the gate, granted him a monopoly licence to teach his new system of phonetic shorthand to leading political and social figures. Not content with being a member of the Royal Society with Isaac Newton, as well as the Freemasons, Byrom formed a secret society known as the Cabala Club through which he amassed a collection of mystical drawings and architectural designs' [wrapper blurb]. Item #179834
Price: $40.00