Why it matters

Defoe's anonymous 1726 Political History of the Devil is the opening volume of his late trilogy on the supernatural, followed by A System of Magick (1726) and An Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions (1727), and dealer and scholarly descriptions treat it as a key statement of his views on the devil — satirical, sceptical of a literal hell, and increasingly read as a gloss on the supernatural elements in his fiction. Standard bibliographies record it (Furbank & Owens 228; Moore 480), and it was later reissued under the title The History of the Devil.

Why we're looking

A complete-looking 1726 first in contemporary panelled calf with the engraved frontispiece present is the form collectors actually want, and this copy's described faults are cosmetic rather than structural. On relative value the picture is mixed: the one priced comparable I could confirm — a Good copy with a cracked front joint and near-detached board — was offered at US$1,647.21 before going off-market, so at c. US$2,451 this asks roughly $800 more for a materially sounder binding; no priced near-fine comp was visible to bracket the upper end, so this is not demonstrably underpriced or overpriced.

Watch out for

The seller discloses a neat spine repair and a small repair to the title-page, plus old inking to the endpapers — all restoration that a buyer should see photographed before committing, particularly the extent of the title-page patch. No page collation or leaf count is given, so ask the seller to confirm the book collates complete and that the frontispiece is the original engraving rather than a supplied or later impression. Note also that 1726 was followed by closely-worded later editions, so confirm the imprint reads 'Printed for T. Warner' with the 1726 date on the title itself.