The Anacreontic Song as Sung at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand the Words by Ralph Tomlinson Esqr. Late President of that Society. ... Price 6d

London: Longman & Broderip, 26 Cheapside, 1779. Folio. Full dark blue morocco with titling gilt to spine, edges and inner dentelles gilt.

[1] (blank), 2-4 pp., with chorus and 5 additional verses to lower portion of page 3 and versions "For the Guitar" and "For the German Flute" to page 4. On good quality laid paper.

Several minor tears to inner blank margins professionally repaired.

An attractive copy, handsomely bound. First Edition, first issue, of the tune that became known as "The Star Spangled Banner." Very rare. Sonneck: The Star Spangled Banner (1914) 1a, p. 41. Muller p. 15. Filby and Howard: Star-Spangled Books, S1, p. 127. Fuld pp. 529-534. College Music Symposium 18/2, Fall 1978, pp. 34-81. BUC p. 1011. RISM S3705 (not distinguishing among issues).

The present first issue carries only the Cheapside address of the publisher; the second and third issues were entirely re-engraved and carry the "No. 13 Hay Market" address as well.

The song was written in the 1770s as the constitutional hymn of the Anacreontic Society, a gentlemen's club of amateur musicians in London that met at the Crown and Anchor tavern to sing catches and glees. John Stafford Smith had a considerable reputation as a composer in this genre, and his Anacreontic Song quickly became immensely popular, especially in the United States. More than 80 settings to various texts appeared in America before 1820; American author and amateur poet Francis Scott Key (1779-1843) wrote the words of "The Star-Spangled Banner" in 1814 to Smith's tune. In this form, the tune soon became a popular patriotic song and, with some melodic alteration, was canonized as the official national anthem of the United States in 1931.

Of considerable rarity, having been printed primarily for members of the Anacreontic Society, which numbered only approximately 50 at the time.