Rare first edition Robert Burns’ poetry from 1786 could fetch £60,000 at auction

An exceptionally rare first edition of Robert Burns’ poetry, published in 1786 by a Kilmarnock printer who was the first to take a risk on the poet’s literary talent, is to go on sale.

Considered one of the most important works of Scottish literature Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect sold for just three shillings. The entire print-run of 612 copies sold out in a month.

It is now set to fetch £60,000 when it goes under the hammer at Lyon & Turnbull on 19 September.

Burns, who started writing poetry around the age of 15, was 27 when the book was published.

A rare first edition of Robert Burns’ Poems. Credit: Stewart Attwood

The Kilmarnock Edition features many of Burns’ best known poems, a significant number of which were written at Mossgiel farm in Mauchline in Ayrshire where he lived and worked with his brother, Gilbert, between 1784 and 1788. 

To a Mouse, Address to the Deil, The Twa Dogs and Halloween all formed part of this early collection.

Although Burns’ success at farming didn’t match this proliferation of poetry – the farm was losing money – it was during his time at Mossgiel that he met a group of six girls about whom he wrote a poem The Belles of Mauchline.

One of them, Jean Armour, the daughter of a stonemason whom he described in the poem as the jewel of them a, would later become his wife. 

She bore him nine children, the first two, a set of twins, were born out of wedlock. Their last child was born on the day of her husband’s funeral in July 1796.

It was Burns’ desire to marry Jean, who was pregnant, that led to the publication of this first volume of poetry. 

Her father vehemently opposed the marriage and Burns planned to emigrate to Jamaica. A local lawyer, Gavin Hamilton, suggested he finance the voyage through the publication of his poems.

The success of the work was immediate and Burns abandoned his plans to leave Scotland.

First edition of Robert Burns Poems – 1786. Credit: Lyon & Turnbull

According to Allan Young’s The Kilmarnock Burns, there are 84 surviving copies with 15 of these (including this copy) in private hands. 

In 2021 the number of copies was updated to 88 in The Burns Chronicle by Edinburgh University Press.

The copy leading Lyon & Turnbull’s specialist auction was rebound in the nineteenth century by the prestigious bookbinder, Bedford, in a beautiful green morocco gilt, replacing the original fragile paper covers; a common practice among bibliophiles of the day.

‘It is extremely exciting to come across one of the first edition copies of the single most famous volume in Scottish cultural heritage,’ said Cathy Marsden, from Lyon & Turnbull.

‘From humble Ayrshire origins, Burns was to become an international literary star. Although very confident in his own abilities, even he could not have predicted such success.’

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