Large 8vo. Fourth edition. Beautifully bound volume in a contemporary half leather Bayntun-Riviere binding, with marbled boards and endpapers. Hand-coloured illustrations by George Cruikshank. Raised gilt bands to spine, together with the title in gilt and a pair of gilt motifs. Ex-library stamp to title page, contents toned and stained but in good general condition. Bookplate of 'William Tarun Fehsenfeld' of Baltimore MD on front pastedown. Hone (1780-1842) was an English writer, satirist, and bookseller. This enormously successful pamphlet was considered one of his finest satirical works. Some historians describe this wicked work as the 'Marriage-a-la-Mode' of the early nineteenth century, portraying as it does the highly partisan potted history of the disaster that was the royal marriage. The work follows the conventions of a traditional Greek tragedy with the first half of the 'ladder' leading up to the King's moment of hubris when Caroline fled England in 1814 - the second half charts her return and eventual coronation. This work first appeared in the August of 1820, and within a week, it proved so popular that it had passed through some dozen or more editions - indeed, it is said that it was in such demand that crowds gathered outside Hone's printshop each morning to secure the latest copy, it having been reprinted overnight. Coloured plates in order: 1. Title page. 2. Qualification. 3. Declaration. 4. Acceptation. 5. Alteration. 6. Imputation. 7. Exculpation. 8. Emigration. 9. Remigration. 10. Consternation. 11. Accusation. 12. Publication. 13. Indignation. 14. Coronation. 15. Degradation. 16. "Cat's Meat" half-page vignette below the text. 17. The Joss and his Folly. 18. "A living teapot stands, one arm held out..." half-page vignette below the text.