Boreman, Thomas. Curiosities in the Tower of London. Volume 2 [of 2]. Boreman, Tho[mas], the Bookseller near the two giants in Guildhall. London. 1741.

xviii, 19-125, printed pages  plus 3 pages of publisher's advertisements at the back. Frontispiece, 1 wood engraved full-page illustration. Numerous woodcut head and tail-pieces.  Including list of Boreman's juvenile subscribers. One of the series of ten 'Gigantick Histories, the first time for an English children's book to focus less on instruction and more on entertainment. Gumuchian said in 1930 "The importance of these tiny volumes for the history of children's booksis evident as they are the forerunners of the 'Lilliputian Magazine' published by Newbery in 1752. There is no doubt that few of these children's treasures have survived, as they were thumbed to pieces in the long years that have elapsed since their publication". Spielmann described his odd volume as "One of the very rare volumes of the 'Gigantick Histories' printed for subscribers only, which are among the earliest English children's books dealing with non-religious matters". "The most remarkable tiny books of the century were perhaps the children's books published by Thomas Boreman in London in the early 1740's... with their lists of child subscribers and attractive woodcut illustrations, simple texts and interesting London subjects, they must have made ideal for young people, fashioned as they were more for pleasure and entertainment than moral improvement" (Bondy). originally priced at fourpence. Total sets subscribed to  were 369 copies. This is a second edition in the same year as the first. Includes a 15 page ballad about the attempt of Thomas Blood to steal the Crown Jewels. Subscribers include Francis Maseres (1731-1824), whose father was a physician and the Willets whose father was a merchant from Lad-lane. Elias Perchard (born 1728) was son of Huguenot parents Hellier and Marie. 

Bondy calls the titles "excessively rare", and the only  complete set of Westminster Abbey recorded in ABPC was in 2007. Original plain endpapers. 46 x 62 mm.  Contemporary full flower decorated cartonnage binding. Spine slightly worn at foot, and with historic paper repair over the spine and hinges. Bondy, 21-2. Bromer/Edison, 128. Gumuchian, 4058. Stone, 16. Welsh, 1407. OCLC, 317795890. WorldCat locates three copies worldwide (Dartmouth - Hanover, Virginia, and Harvard University Libraries).