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Bewick, Thomas & Pearson, Edwin [Preface].
Bewick's Select Fables of Aesop and Others. In Three Parts. I. Fables Extracted from Dodsley’s. II. Fables With Refelections in Prose and Verse. III. Fables in Verse. To Which are Prefixed The Life of Aesop, and an Essay upon Fable by Oliver Goldsmith. Faithfully Reprinted from the Rare Newcastle Edition published by T. Saint in 1784. With the Original Wood Engravings by Thomas Bewick, and an Illustrated Preface by Edwin Pearson.
Publisher: Bickers & Son, London;
Date of Publication: 1871
Stock Code: 12078
FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY. Octavo, pp. xi, 312, 4 catalogue. Engraved frontispiece, vignette to title-page and illustrated throughout. Publishers’ decorative royal blue cloth with bevelled boards, heavily blocked in black, gilt and orange to spine and upper board, with decoration in blind to lower. All edges gilt. Spine lightly toned; minor wear to spine tips and corners. inner front hinge cracked but firmly holding. Inscription to reverse of frontispiece: “Presented by Isabella Bewick to her cousin Alfred John Ward Nov 1872.”. A little foxing to catalogue otherwise contents clean. A very good copy in the handsome original binding. Isabella Bewick was Thomas’ second daughter (1790-1883) and the longest surviving of his four children, and the Ward family (of Ward’s Directories fame) were close relatives. Edwin Pearson of the Bewick Repository bookshop in London bought Thomas Bewick’s blocks and reprinted a number of his works including this one; he also published pastiche works using genuine Bewick woodblocks, which he offered to collectors at exorbitant prices. “Select Fables” was a reprint rather than a fake, and was described by Isabella’s older sister Jane, who subscribed for 25 copies, as “a pretty book well got up”. £280.00