I’ve always been fascinated by John Playford’s English Dancing Master. As a collector of antiquarian books with a particular interest in folk music and dance, this was one of those books I always wanted to find. I’ve had saved searches on various antiquarian book and auction websites but nothing has every turned up and I’ve never seen an actual copy either in the flesh or photograph.
Turns out that despite it’s fame and the numerous facsimiles available, including of the 1651 edition, it’s a lot rarer than I thought.
I recently stumbled across this auction record with Bonhams for the 5th edition, published 1675.
The listing states the following:
“All early editions are extremely scarce, the first three having been issued during the Commmonwealth. In fact only one copy of any pre-1700 edition is listed in auction records, an incomplete third edition which sold for £9,000 in 2003 (lacking the engraved title-page and three other leaves). In 1957, Margaret Dean-Smith had noted that “only one copy of the second edition can be traced changing hands in the last century [and] only two of the third and fourth”. The earliest edition found in the Library of Congress is a copy of the ninth of 1698, and of this fifth edition, ESTC records five copies”.
This copy sold for Sold for £10,625 on 18th June 2014 in London.
