The Life and Death of Jonathan Wild, the Celebrated Thief-Taker..

1829. London, 1829. w/hand-colored folding frontispiece. London, 1829. w/hand-colored folding frontispiece. With a Hand-Colored Folding Frontispiece [Wild, Jonathan (1683-1725)]. The Life and Death of Jonathan Wild, The Celebrated Thief-Taker: Containing a Complete History of this Notorious Character: Also the Particulars of his First Exploit, And Adventures at Warwick with a Female Doctor; His First Appearance in London, Where he is Arrested by his Companion, And Lodged in the Compter, Where, By his Acuteness, Penetration, And Advice, He Gains the Confidence of the Principal Thieves, Which Enables him to Hold Sway Over them for Many Years. His Curious Mode of Restoring Stolen Property; The Revenge he Took on a Cheesemonger, One of his Gang, Who had Deserted; Some Accounts of the Mint in Southwark, Formerly a Privileged Place for Debtors; Sets the Justice of his Country at Defiance for Many Years, Till Having Overreached Himself, He was Executed at Tyburn. Interspersed Throughout with Many Anecdotes. At head of title: Allman's Edition. London: Printed by W. Lewis, Finch-Lane, for T. and J. Allman.. and may be had of all booksellers, 1829. 28 pp. Folding hand-colored frontispiece. Octavo (7-1/4" x 4-1/4"). Stab-stitched pamphlet in printed wrappers bound into three-quarter morocco over marbled boards, raised bands and gilt title and tooling to spine, marbled endpapers. Binding signed by "Tout" for Estes & Lauriat of Boston, either the Victorian bookbinder Samuel Tout or the subsequent firm of Tout & Sons. Light rubbing to extremities, corners bumped and lightly worn, monogram bookplate ("WHT") to front pastedown. Light toning to interior, light foxing to wrappers, faint offsetting from frontispiece, which has two small clean tears along fold line. A very good copy. $750. * A scarce edition of this popular account of the (low-) life of Jonathan Wild, the celebrated 18th-century underworld figure and criminal mastermind. He was notable for "recovering" stolen property and pocketing the rewards to fund his vast criminal empire, earning him the name "Thief-Taker General." Wild's career was both audacious and extraordinary, but eventually he hanged at Tyburn. Wild's exploits are extensively detailed in ODNB, who note that "his name had long been the property of satirists and pamphleteers. As Peachum in John Gay's Beggar's Opera (1728), or Henry Fielding's Jonathan Wild the Great (1743), Wild... had become a bywo.