BEWICK, Thomas. Select Fables With Cuts Designed and Engraved from Thomas and John Bewick and Others, Previous to the Year 1784: Together with a Memoir and a Descriptive Catalogue of the Works of Messrs. Bewick London: S. Hodgson, for Emerson Charnley, and Baldwin, Cradock and Joy. 1820.
Imperial 8vo (26.5 by 16.5 cm). Contemporary tan calf over marbled boards, spine with morocco lettering-piece; pp. [2], xl, 332, portrait-frontispiece engraved by Charlton Nesbit (on thinner paper), title-page with wood-engraved vignette, wood-engraved vignettes and illustrations throughout; extremities a little worn, internally only here and there the lightest of spotting, very few contemporary ms. annotations; a very clean and crisp copy.
First edition of this compilation of vignettes and fable illustrations by Bewick, together with a memoir and a catalogue of his oeuvre. The Newcastle publisher and printers collected original wooblocks from various sources and produced a bibliophile book. The prospectus for the work of 1819 announced '… the impression will consist of a very limited number' (Tattersfield II, p. 624). The work appeared in three formats, demi 8vo, Royal 8vo, and this - the rarest - Imperial 8vo. The present copy is printed on remarkably thick paper, with the watermark dated 1818. Some of the earliest wood-engravings by the technique's inventor and pioneer are featured in this beautiful book.
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