Item #5302 The Gold-Headed Cane. William MacMichael.

The Gold-Headed Cane.

1827. London: John Murray, 1827.

8vo, [8], 179, [1] pp., wood-engravings in the text. Original boards, with later paper backing, worn, tear at backstrip head, upper joint cracked, occasional foxing within.

§ First edition. MacMichael, a physician and graduate of Christ Church, Oxford, wrote the anonymous Gold-Headed Cane as a vehicle to present the biographies of five former owners. “This charming ‘autobiography’ tells of the adventures of the famous gold-headed cane, successively in the possession of Radcliffe, Mead, Askew, William and David Pitcairn and Baillie, and then retired to a glass case in the library of the Royal College of Physicians of London. Besides good biographies of the several owners of the cane, the book gives interesting information on the condition of medicine in England in the 18th century.” —G-M 6709. Norman 1409. Item #5302

Price: $375.00

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