Bewick's Select Fables of Æsop and others. In Three Parts. I. Fables extracted from Dodsley's. II. Fables with Reflections in Prose and Verse. III. Fables in Verse. To which are prefixed the Life of Æsop, 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... and an Illustrated Preface by Edwin Pearson.
London: Bickers & Son, 1886. 8vo, xl, 312 pp. Frontispiece and numerous wood engraved illustrations, some light foxing to the text, heavier foxing to front and rear blanks, marbled endpapers and sides, attractive bookplate of Herbert S. Squance. Bound in early 20th century half vellum, t.e.g., gilt decorated spine with a morocco label, some mild marking, an attractive copy. Following Charnley's edition of 1820 and Bohn's some two decades later, "...the blocks passed... to yet another confectioner of Bewick titles, the self-important Edwin Pearson. Determined to recreate the edition of 1784, Pearson provided all the surviving headpiece fable cuts with decorated spandrels (few of which match those of 1784) and caused four new fable blocks to be cut... Reynolds Stone branded them 'impudent', although Jane Bewick, who subscribed for twenty-five copies of the 1871 edition termed it 'a pretty book well got up'". Tattersfield II p. 624. Item #37593
Price: £125.00