Addison, Joseph. DIALOGUES UPON THE USEFULNESS OF ANCIENT MEDALS. ESPECIALLY IN RELATION TO THE LATIN AND GREEK POETS. London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, 1726. 12mo, contemporary brown calf, gilt, rebacked with modern brown leather at spine and corners; crimson spine label, gilt; modern endpapers. 328 pages, including 62 woodcut plates of ancient coins. Very good or better copy. A classic essay, in Volume III of the collected 1726 edition of Addison’s Miscellaneous Works, in Verse and Prose. A defense of numismatics written in the form of a discourse between Cynthio, Eugenius and Philander, followed by three series of woodcut plates of Roman coins, and preceded by Alexander Pope’s “Verses Occasion’d by Mr. Addison’s Treatise of Medals.” Two other essays are also included. Addison was one of the most important English essayists, and was, through The Spectator (which he published with Richard Steele), one of the guardians of good taste at the time. His opinions on the merits of coin collecting mattered. Dekesel A30. Hirsch 2. Lipsius 4.