[Willem van Haren] Verzameling van gedichten, van, voor en tegen Willem van Haren,

Grietman op Het Bildt: en Wegens de Provincie van Vriesland Gecommiteerden in het Collegie van de Edele Hoog Mog: Heeren Staaten Generaal der Vereenigde Nederlanden (...). Utrecht, "voor de Compagnie", 1742 (colophon on p. 32, 102, 157, and 364), (2),364 (= 362, skipping p. 158-159) p. (all pages within letterpress decorative border), this copy with the following (EXTRA) engr./ etched plates: frontisp. "Hollands Vryheidt", frontisp. portrait of Van Haren and a portrait of Maria Theresa (these 3 plates in 8vo size and grangerised), portrait of G.W. Baron van Imhoff and 12 (fold. or large fold.) plates, contemp. speckled calf gilt and ribbed spine w. mor. letterpiece, folio.

Bound with: (2) Twee lierzangen door den Heere Willem van Haren. The Hague, I. Beauregard, 1747, (3),106-115,(3 blank), 8vo (quire signature K). And with: (3) Versameling van Brieven, Extracten en Resolutien; raakende het verkiesen van de zes generaals, en 't aanstellen van Zyn Hoogheyd als Lieutenant Generaal, met de protestatien daar tegen. N.pl., no publisher, 1742, (36) p., folio. And with: (4) Missive en aanspraak met antwoorden, door de Heeren Staaten van Holland en Westvriesland en derzelver gedeputeerden (...). N.pl., no publisher, 6 Februari 1743. Ad 1: occas. browned/ foxed (incl. the title p.); the plates bound in between p. 324 and 345 have a tear near spine or on folds (closed), the final plate is loose. Joints splitting at spine ends (foot of spine chipped); covers a few other small defects. Scheepers II, 136a. A special copy of a most intriguing work, composed around the infamous Frisian statesman, poet and womanizer Willem van Haren (1710-1768), who died a poor man by committing suicide on 5 July 1768 by taking poison. He was the brother of the also known Onno Zwier van Haren. The lives of the two brothers were the inspiration for E. du Perron's Schandaal in Holland (The Hague, 1939). As an early critic of Dutch colonial politics, he directed one of his poems against the slaughter of between 5.000 and 10.000 Chinese in Batavia, from 9 to 12 October 1740. In 1744, he argued that the Sociëteit van Suriname had earned enough from the colony. Of the present work we found copies with different amounts of plates or with no plates at all, and also with varying extra letterpress texts. It was composed around the discussions about the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748) and the role that Willem van Haren played in the conflict. The (caricatural) plates (apparently from other works or published separately) also illustrate the political tensions, and are highly interesting in themselves.