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Third Edition. Hard cover, demi 8vo, possibly trimmed, (Roscoe 3b.), in an unsigned contemporary fine binding of diced full calf, the boards double-ruled in gilt, with the spine divided into seven faux compartments, each with neoclassical designs and rope-like design rolled in gilt, and other tooled vignettes in blind along the spine. Rolled Shilling style gilt edged corners to boards. Cream end papers. Engraved title page with 1792 date and priced at "9 shillings in boards." [2], x, [1]- 483 [2] pp. A printing of 1500 copies in this demy format was done of this very popular second edition. (Roscoe p. 18). Roughly 262 engravings by Bewick counted. **CONDITION: about Very Good overall. Eighteenth century-appropriate amounts of rubbing and small losses seen to boards, generally at joints, and partly obscuring design to spine, as seen. One moderately bumped corner rear board. Inside, about Near Fine, the rag-made paper remaining bright and with very small amount of foxing or other soiling. Worming an issue at rear (with one singular trail encroaching about a third of the way forward,) as seen. The book remains stable, however, square and useable. **An armchair zoologist's delight, this title has a six-page index of the many animals represented by Thomas Bewick's wonderful wood engravings, the subjects of which span the continents, (although some were prepared from taxidermic examples.) A tongue in cheek entry for the Corsican Stag (p.127) shows an image of what must be Napolean, in a bit of satiric wit. Our copy also has a few learned marginal annotations in pencil and old ink. ** Newcastle artist and printer Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) was apprenticed to the printshop of his Mr. Ralph Beilby as a young man. His memoirs mention beginnings as a the son of a tenant farmer with an innate love of drawing. He became a master of the wood carved print block in an age when printmaking was technically moving forward to metal engraving techniques. But it is exactly the crisp, bold lines, and sometimes imagined movement of his subjects which have attracted readers to this book for centuries. REFS: T. Bewick, My Life. (London: Folio Society, 1981). S. Roscoe, Thomas Bewick, A Bibliography (Folkestone & London: Dawson's of Pall Mall, 1973.) Note: Binding is also consistent with our listing (to come) 9398, The History of British Birds (in Two Volumes).
Ref: NATH 9397
$325.00