First Edition William Blake
GAY, John; William BLAKE (illustrator). Fables … with a life of the author and embellished with seventy plates. London: John Stockdale. 1793.
Two vols, 8vo. Contemporary mottled calf with gilt border to sides, sometime rebacked, spines with gilt rules and lettering, endpaper renewed; pp. I: xi, [1 (blank)], 225, [1]; II: vii, [1 (blank)], 176; frontispiece to vol I, two engraved title pages, sixty eight plates including twelve by William Blake, bound without subscribers' list; some foxing throughout, especially to title pages, off-setting from plates as usual, but overall very good; 19th-century armorial bookplate of "Barrow Hill" to front pastedowns; small ink ownership stamp of Wolfgang Metzner (1909-1992), publisher, to front free endpaper.
First edition with William Blake's illustrations. As Keynes notes, many of the plates seem to be based on illustrations in previous editions, but Blake's engraving for the introduction could be by nobody else.
Keynes 106; ESTC N9619.
#2122676