ALKEN, Henry

Shakespeare's Seven Ages of Man

London: E. and C. McLean, 1824. “All The World's a Stage” Shakspeare's Seven Ages of Man as Depicted by Henry Alken ALKEN, Henry, illustrator. Shakespeare's Seven Ages of Man, Illustrated by Henry Alken. London: Published by E. and C. McLean, 1824. First edition. Oblong folio (11 1/8 x 16 1/2 inches; 283 x 419 mm.). One page of text, plus seven large hand-colored etchings. Publisher's printed paper wrappers, expertly rebacked. A bit of edgewear to wrappers, the last plate with a short 1/4 inch closed tear to lower blank margin. A wonderful example with wide margins, housed in a red cloth portfolio, front panel lettered in gilt. The text leaf is an excerpt from Shakespeare's As You Like It (Act II, Scene VII). In “All The World's a Stage” the character Jaques speaks about the seven ages of man from birth till death where he sees the world as a temporary stage where all of mankind plays particular roles in seven different stages of life. OCLC/KVK locate only seven copies in institutional holdings worldwide. The plates are titled: The Infant (June 20th. 1824) The School-Boy (June 15th, 1824) The Lover (June 15th. 1824) (watermarked J. Whatman 1824) The Soldier (June 20th. 1824) The Justice (June 20th. 1824) The Sixth Age (June 20th. 1824) Last Scene of all (June 20th. 1824) (watermarked J. Whatman 1824) "This is of a very different sort from Stothard's Seven Ages. It represents a satirical treatment of that speech, with hand-coloured etchings by Henry Alken which are very amusing" (Colin Franklin). Abbey, Life in England, 256; Bobins II, 611; Jaggard, p. 288; Tooley, 47. .

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Book number: 05810

Catalogue: English Literature

Keywords: Color-Plate Books Caricatures Literature Theater

ALKEN, Henry

Touch at the Fine Arts, A.

London: Thomas M’Lean, 1824. Artists Jargon Satirically Defined Rare in the Original Boards ALKEN, Henry. A Touch at the Fine Arts: Illustrated by Twelve Plates, with Descriptions by Henry Alken. London: Published by Thomas M’Lean, Repository of Wit and Humour, 1824. First edition. Quarto (10 1/8 x 6 3/4 inches; 257 x 171 mm.). [30], [2, advertisements, verso blank] pp. Twelve hand-colored soft-ground etchings, all with original tissue guards. Each plate with a leaf of descriptive letterpress. Complete with the half-title and the leaf of advertisements. Very small lower marginal stain (1/4 x 5/8 inch) affecting first five leaves of text but not affecting plates. Publisher's red printed boards expertly rebacked and re-cornered in red roan. Smooth spine ruled and horizontally lettered in gilt. Early ink inscription "Mrs. Ablett / Llanbedr Hall / 1850" on verso of front free endpaper. An excellent copy. “A Touch at the Fine Arts-is, according to the preface, ‘an attempt to elucidate, by graphic delineations, a variety of terms generally and perhaps exclusively made use of by artists, amateurs, connoisseurs, virtuosos, and the like. Long, indeed, has a generous public been, doubtless, puzzled in the endeavour to discover some ray of meaning in those glowing, brilliant and forcible phrases, which the critical catalogues, Catalogues Raisonnées, etc. of the day are woefully burthened with.’ It is a cheap kind of humour at the best. To take two of the most deserving subjects—‘A Moving Effect; the Execution rapid,’ is represented by a runaway coach, with expressions of the utmost horror in the faces and attitudes of the occupants; ‘A Striking Effect, the handling by no means good or pleasant to the eye,’ is illustrated by a fracas between two returning roisterers and some night-watchmen. In these and in plate 2, a prison-scene depicting ‘An unpleasant effect, but the Keeping is Good,’ Alken shows genuine power as a draughtsman, and infuses his work with a character lacking elsewhere. The last plate, indeed, might almost be a coloured lithograph from the hand of Daumier. All twelve plates, it should be said, are soft-ground etchings, with colour applied by hand” (Martin Hardie). Joseph Ablett (d. 1848), descended from a long-established Suffolk yeoman family, purchased Llanbedr Hall, Denbighshire in 1804, and subsequently also nearby estates at Plas Coch and Bathafarn (in 1831).  He seems to have built a new house at Llanbedr which was remodeled later, and also to have altered Bathafarn. At his death his estates passed to a cousin, John Jesse, a Manchester surgeon. The Plates: 1. Frontispiece. All Effect—The Subject far from good, but Rich 2. —An Imposing Effect 3. Unpleasant in Effect—but the keeping is Good 4. A Moving Effect—the Execution Rapid 5. A Striking Effect—The handling by no means good, or pleasant to the eye 6. A Forcible Effect 7. A Sudden Effect 8. A surprising Effect—but no Execution 9. A Very Warm Effect 10. A powerful Effect—but the subject rather hurried 11. A Spirited Effect—but no order kept in the grouping of the Figures 12. A very Brilliant Effect Martin Hardie, pp. 183-184 and 319. Siltzer, p. 71. Tooley 58. Not in Abbey. .

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Book number: 05913

Catalogue: English Literature

Keywords: Color-Plate Books Caricatures Nineteenth-Century Literature

[SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS]; Brontë, Charlotte; Brontë, Anne

Shakespeare Head Brontë, the

Oxford: , 1931. The Shakespeare Head Brontë A Fine Set in the Original Dust Jackets [SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS]. BRONTË, [Charlotte, Emily, and Anne]. The Shakespeare Head Brontë. Oxford: Newly Printed at the Shakespeare Head Press and Published for the Press by Basil Blackwell, 1931. Limited to 1,000 copies. Eleven large octavo volumes (containing the Novels). [Together with:] [SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS]. BRONTË, [Charlotte, Emily, and Anne.] The Brontës: Their Lives, Friendships and Correspondence. In Four Volumes. [Edited by Thomas James Wise and John Alexander Symington]. Oxford: Printed at the Shakespeare Head Press and Published for the Press by Basil Blackwell, 1932. Limited to 750 copies. Four large octavo volumes. [And:] [SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS]. BRONTË, Charlotte, and Patrick Branwell. The Poems of Charlotte Brontë & Patrick Branwell Brontë. [Edited by Thomas James Wise and John Alexander Symington]. Oxford: Printed at the Shakespeare Head Press and Published for the Press by Basil Blackwell, 1934. Limited to 500 copies. [And:] [SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS]. BRONTË, Emily Jane and Anne. The Poems of Emily Jane Brontë and Anne Brontë. [Edited by Thomas James Wise and John Alexander Symington]. Oxford: Printed at the Shakespeare Head Press and Published for the Press by Basil Blackwell, 1934. Limited to 500 copies. [And:] [SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS]. BRONTË, Charlotte, and Patrick Branwell. The Miscellaneous and Unpublished Writings of Charlotte and Patrick Branwell Brontë. In Two Volumes. [Edited by Thomas James Wise and John Alexander Symington]. Oxford: Printed at the Shakespeare Head Press and Published for the Press by Basil Blackwell, 1936-1938]. Limited to 1,000 copies. Two large octavo volumes. Together, nineteen large octavo volumes (9 1/8 x 6 7/8 inches; 231 x 156 mm.). Photogravure frontispieces and plates. Original orange buckram lettered in gilt on spines. Top edge gilt, others uncut (only on The Brontës: Their Lives, Friendships and Correspondence, The Poems of Charlotte Brontë & Patrick Branwell Brontë, and The Poems of Emily Jane Brontë and Anne Brontë). Volume I of The Miscellaneous and Unpublished Writings of Charlotte and Patrick Branwell Brontë has a previous owner’s ink signature, dated 1945, on the front free endpaper. A fine set. In the original cream-colored printed dust jackets (some very minor shelfwear to jackets). This is the finest edition of the collected works of Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and Branwell Brontë. Franklin, The Private Presses, p. 236. Ransom, Selective Check Lists, p. 18, no. 73. .

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Book number: 00184

Catalogue: English Literature

Keywords: Brontë, Charlotte Brontë, Anne English Literature Nineteenth-Century Literature Sets Fine Printing Fine Printing Literature Nineteenth-Century Literature Poetry

BUNBURY, Henry; GAMBADO, Geoffrey

Annals of Horsemanship

London: W. Dickinson, 1791. The Classic Lampoon Of Idiots On Horseback [BUNBURY, Henry]. Gambado, Geofrey (pseud.). Annals of Horsemanship: Containing Accounts of Accidental Experiments and Experimental Accidents, Both Successful and Unsuccessful: Communicated by Various Correspondents to Geoffrey Gambado, Esq.-Together with Most Instructive Remarks Thereon, and Answers Thereto, by that Accomplished Genius. And Now First Published, by the Editor of the Academy for Grown Horsemen. Illustrated with Cuts by the Most Eminent Artists. London: Printed for W. Dickinson, 1791. First edition. Folio (12 3/4 x 8 3/4 in; 323 x 222 mm). xvii, 81, [1, adv.] pp. Frontispiece and sixteen line- and stipple-engraved plates, plain as issued without color option. Engraved by W.P. Carey after Bunbury's designs. Early twentieth century half crimson hard-grained morocco over red cloth boards ruled in gilt. Spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt dots. Gilt-ruled compartments. An excellent copy. A “singulier ouvrage” (Brunet) and wildly popular, Annals of Horsemanship was reprinted in the same year in Dublin, again in 1796, 1811, and once more in 1812 collected with Bunbury's other satire, The Academy For Grown Horsemen. The engraved plates were designed by Henry William Bunbury (1750-1811). "Bunbury owed much during his lifetime to the charm of a genial nature, and to his position as a man of family and education. West flattered him, and Walpole enthusiastically compared him to Hogarth. He was the friend of Goldsmith, Garrick, and Reynolds, and the favourite of the Duke and Duchess of York, to whom in 1787 he was appointed equerry. All this, coupled with the facts that he was seldom, if ever, personal, and wholly abstained from political subjects, greatly aided his popularity with the printsellers and the public of his day, and secured his admission, as an honorary exhibitor, to the walls of the Academy, where between 1780 and 1808 his works frequently appeared- [They] are not without a good deal of grotesque drollery of the rough-and-ready kind in vogue towards the end of the last century¾that is to say, drollery depending in a great measure for its laughable qualities upon absurd contrasts, ludicrous distortions, horseplay, and personal misadventure." (DNB). “’The lovers of humor were inconsolable for the loss of Hogarth, but from his ashes a number of sportive geniuses have sprung up, and the works of Bunbury [et al] have entertained us’ (Walker’s Hibernian Magazine, May 1790). Just at this time, one of these ‘sportive geniuses’ was at the height of his popularity. Of the many amateur caricaturists who flourished during the second half of the eighteenth century, Bunbury was undoubtedly the most famous. His talents for depicting humorous incidents of everyday life and manners established him as a master of the burlesque, and his reputation in social caricature rivaled that of Thomas Rowlandson or James Gillray.” ((Riely, John C. Horace Walpole and ‘the Second Hogarth’, in Eighteenth Century Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1, Autumn, 1975, p. 28). The Plates: 1. The Apotheosis of Geoffrey Gambado 2. Mr. Gambado Seeing the World in a Six Mile Tour Famed in History 3. Dr. Cassock F.R.S. T.P.Q. Inventor of the Noble Puzzle for Tumble Down Horses 4. The Puzzle for the Dog, The Puzzle for the Horse, The Puzzle for Turk, Frenchman, or, Christian 5.How to Make the Most of a Horse 6. How to Make the Least of Him 7. How to Do Things by Halves 8. Tricks Upon Travellers 9. Love and Wind 10. Me & My Wife and Daughter 11. How to Make the Mare to Go 12. How to Prevent the Horse Slipping his Girths 13. How to Ride Without a Bridle 14. A Daisy Cutter with his Varieties 15. The Tumbler, or its Affinities 16. A Horse with a Nose 17. How to Travel Upon Two Legs in a Frost ESTCT12226, Brunet II, 1474. .

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Book number: 02549

Catalogue: English Literature

Keywords: GAMBADO, Geoffrey Nineteenth-Century Literature Sports Horses

BUNYAN, John; Bayntun

Pilgrim's Progress, the

London: Arthur L. Humphreys, 1906. An Elegantly Printed Edition of One of the Most Significant Works of Religious English Literature BUNYAN, John. The Pilgrim's Progress. [The Royal Library Chef D'Oeuvre Series]. London, Arthur L. Humphreys, 1906. Octavo. (9 1/8 x 6 5/8 inches; 233 x 166 mm). [4], 327, [1 blank] pp. Title-page printed in red and black. Bound by Bayntun in early twentieth-century three-quarter dark blue polished calf ruled in gilt over blue cloth boards. Spine with five raised bands and red and green morocco gilt lettering labels, marbled endpapers. Printed on handmade watermark rag paper. Top of spine and joints a little rubbed otherwise excellent. An elegantly printed modern edition of Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come; Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream, originally published in February, 1678. A celebrated allegorical tale of Christian the pilgrim on his journey to the Celestial City, the Christian encounters both worthy companions and dreadful adversaries. .

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Book number: 00852

Catalogue: English Literature

Keywords: Bayntun Bindings Fine Printing Seventeenth-Century Literature Fine Printing Literature Seventeenth-Century Literature

[CHATTERTON, Thomas]

Poems

London: Printed for T. Payne and Son at the Mews-Gate, 1778. One of the Great Literary "Forgeries" [CHATTERTON, Thomas]. Poems, Supposed to Have Been Written at Bristol, by Thomas Rowley, and Others, in the Fifteenth Century. The Third Edition; to Which is Added an Appendix, Containing Some Observations Upon the Language of These Poems; Tending to Prove, That They Were Written, Not by Any Ancient Author, but Entirely by Thomas Chatterton. London: T. Payne and Son at the Mews-Gate, 1778. Third edition. Octavo. [2], xxvii, [1], 333, [1, blank] pp. One plate. Contemporary tree calf. Gilt-tooled borders. Gilt ornamented and decorated spine. Morocco spine label, gilt-lettered. Joints, spine head and tail, label and corners near invisibly restored. Contemporary signature to titlepage. A very good copy. One of the great literary "forgeries," the mythical Thomas Rowley was created by Chatterton shortly after he began writing poetry at the incredible age of 11. The manuscript was not published until seven years after Chatterton's death and sparked a controversy over the authenticity of the poems, caused in large part by critics who could not believe that such expertly crafted poems could have come from a half-educated apprentice barely in his teens. Samuel Johnson called him "the most extraordinary young man that has encountered my knowledge," and Keats dedicated ENDYMION to his memory. He was admired by Coleridge, Shelley, Wordsworth, and Rossetti who said that he had "Shakespeare's manhood in a boy's wild heart." Walking with a companion in a London churchyard one day, the impoverished Chatterton stumbled into a newly dug grave. His friend came to his rescue and, attempting to make light of the matter, claimed he was glad to be present at the resurrection of a genius. Chatterton replied: "I have been at war with the grave for sometime, and I find it not so easy to vanquish it as I imagined. We can find an asylum to hide from every creditor but that." Three days later, three months shy of his eighteenth birthday, he destroyed all of his manuscripts, swallowed arsenic, and paid his debt. The next day he was shoveled ..   Cf. Rothschild 589. Cf. Hayward 188. .

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Book number: 01362

Catalogue: English Literature

Keywords: Eighteenth-Century Literature Literature Poetry

CROFT, Peter John

Autograph Poetry in the English Language

New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1973. Poetry In Original Manuscript [CROFT, Peter John, editor]. Autograph Poetry in the English Language. Facsimiles of Original Manuscripts from the Fourteenth to the Twentieth Century. Compiled and Edited with an Introduction, Commentary and Transcripts by P. J. Croft. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, [1973]. First American edition. Limited to 1,500 sets. Two folio volumes. Original green cloth and paper over boards. A mint set. In the original dust jackets and slipcase. 197 manuscripts are illustrated with facing biographical information about the author. An important volume in the study of autograph material. .

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Book number: 00827

Catalogue: English Literature

Keywords: Bibliography Poetry English Literature Bibliography Facsimiles Literature Poetry

CRUIKSHANK, George; SMOLLETT, Tobias

Adventures of Sir Lancelot Greaves, the

London: James Cochrane, 1832. Two Hand Colored Plated by George Cruikshank CRUIKSHANK, George, illustrator.SMOLLETT (Tobias George). The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves. By Tobias Smollett, M.D. With illustrations by George Cruikshank. London: James Cochrane, 1832. First edition with illustrations by George Cruikshank. Small octavo (6 1/2 x 4 1/8 inches; 165 x 105 mm.). [iv], 243, [1, blank] pp. Two hand colored etched plates (facing pages 8 and 176). Full red morocco by R. R. Donnelly & Sons Co. Chicago, with their ticket bound in after the front endpaper. Covers with large gilt designs, spine with five raised bands, lettered in gilt in compartments, gilt board edges and turn-ins, top edge gilt. Rebacked with original spine laid down. The two plates were colored at a later date. The novel appeared in Roscoe's Novelist's Library, of which it forms the second part of volume X. .

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Book number: 05659

Catalogue: English Literature

Keywords: SMOLLETT, Tobias Color-Plate Books Cruikshankiana

CRUIKSHANK, George, artist

[Cruikshank's Fairy Library]

London: , 1864. A Complete Set of the Proofs on India Paper of the Twenty-Four Plates in the Series Four Signed in Pencil by George Cruikshank CRUIKSHANK, George. [The Fairy Library]. [London: D. Bogue / Routledge, Warne & Routledge, 1853, 1854, 1854 & 1864]. A Complete Set of the Etched Proofs on India Paper of the Twenty-Four Plates in the Series. The four first etchings are each signed in pencil by George Cruikshank. Folio (11 7/8 x 8 5/8 inches; 301 x 219 mm.). Twenty-four etched proofs on India paper (average size of proof 6 7/8 x 5 1/4 inches; 175 x x 133 mm.) all mounted on thick card measuring 11 7/8 x 8 5/8 inches; 301 x 219 mm. Chemised in a quarter red morocco slipcase over red cloth ruled in gilt, spine with five raised bands, lettered in gilt in compartments. Some light foxing to mounts only. Frederick Arnold (fl. 1862-1874 was George Cruikshank's publisher of the first reissues of the first three volumes of The Fairy Library and the first edition of the fourth volume, Puss in Boots. George Cruikshank’s Fairy Library consists of four stories; Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Hop o’ my Thumb and the Seven League Boots, and Puss in Boots. First published, London: D. Bogue / Routledge, Warne & Routledge, [1853], [1854], [1854], [1864]. Cruikshank was already a distinguished caricaturist and illustrator of books for children and adults when he produced this work. His illustrations for the first English translation of Grimm’s Fairy Tales were praised widely, but his own rewriting of the fairy tales was criticized, most prominently by Charles Dickens. This was not due to the quality of the illustrations, but because, in line with his temperance beliefs, Cruikshank rewrote aspects of the fairy tales to warn the reader against the evils of alcohol. Thus, for instance, the preparations for Cinderella’s marriage include the court throwing all alcohol in the palace on a bonfire; and in Jack and the Beanstalk, the giant is an alcoholic. Dickens, a friend of Cruikshank, was outraged at what he considered to be a betrayal of the essence of fairy tales and, in protest he published an essay in his weekly magazine Household Words entitled Frauds on the Fairies in protest (1853). The Fairy Library was not well-received by Cruikshank's close friend, Charles Dickens. Cruikshank (who wrote the text) in his alcohol abstinence zeal had turned these classic stories into temperance tracts. Dickens, in the October 1, 1853 issue of Household Words, wrote a review, Frauds on Fairies, that harshly criticized Cruikshank for "propagating the doctrines of Total Abstinance, Prohibition.. Free Trade, and Popular Education" (Patten II, p. 339). Yet "so even in Hop and the two stories that followed in the Fairy Library, the illustrations continue to evoke magic kingdoms while the prose cranks out diatribes" (ibid). Later, in 1864, when Routledge wished to continue the series with Puss In Boots, Cruikshank did so "purged of teetotal maxims" (ibid. p. 387) After the financial failure of 1851, or, The Adventures of Mr. and Mrs. Sandboys, who came up to London.. Cruikshank decided to resume fairy tale illustrations- "Cruikshank's reason for returning to fairy tales was a good deal more pragmatic. He needed money, and since his illustrations for the Brothers Grimm and other nursery favorites had earned him both a reputation and some shillings, he decided to revive those earlier subjects. This time, however, since no authorial collaborator was available, Cruikshank elected to write, embellish, and publish a series of fairy tales all on his own. He approached David Bogue with this proposition in the autumn of 1852; between them they arranged for the artist to receive advances against receipts to cover the cost of "editing" the texts and etching the plates, and for the publisher to make periodic accountings of each title as it was printed and sold. By May of the next year, however, Cruikshank was anticipating his income to such an extent that even before the plates for the first volume, Hop o' my Thumb and the Seven League Boots, were completed he was overdrawn.. Cruikshank finished Hop around the first of June 1853.. The next two volumes in the Fairy Library [The History of Jack & The Beanstalk and Cinderella and the Glass Slipper] were duly issued in 1854.. See Cohn 196-199. .

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Book number: 04690

Catalogue: English Literature

Keywords: Children's Books Caricatures Fairy Tales Nineteenth-Century Literature

CRUIKSHANK, George; BEDFORD, Francis, binder

George Cruikshank's Fairy Library

London: D. Bogue, 1853. A Complete Set of The Fairy Library With all of the Plates in Two States - Hand-Colored and Plain The First Three Titles Boldly Signed By Cruikshank CRUIKSHANK, George. George Cruikshank's Fairy Library. [Comprising:] Hop-O'My-Thumb and The Seven-League Boots. Edited and illustrated with six etchings by George Cruikshank. London: David Bogue, [1853]. [Together with:] The History of Jack & the Bean-Stalk. Edited and illustrated with six etchings by George Cruikshank. London: David Bogue, [1854]. [And:] Cinderella and the Glass Slipper. Edited and illustrated with ten subjects, designed and etched on steel, by George Cruikshank. London: David Bogue, [1854]. [And:] Puss in Boots. Edited and illustrated with etchings on steel, by George Cruikshank. London: Routledge, Warne & Routledge- F. Arnold, [1864]. First edition, (**most probably first issues) of all four titles including Puss in Boots which has the notice "To the Public" on the inside of the front cover repeated on separate leaf in different type, and no list of plates. Four octavo volumes bound in one (6 3/4 x 5 1/16 inches; 172 x 128 mm.). [1, title], [2, imprint], [3], 4-30, [1, List of illustrations], [1, blank]; [1, blank], [2, List of illustrations], [3, title], [4, imprint], [5], 6-32; [1, blank], [2, List of illustrations], [3, title], [4, imprint], [5], 6-31, [1, blank]; [i, General Title], [ii, To the Public], [1, title], [2, blank], [3], 4-40 pp. Original green cardboard printed front covers for each volume bound in. The back wrappers are not present. Plates in two states, hand colored and plain. Fifty-one black and white etchings, including frontispieces, on thirty plates. First color plate in Hop O' My-Thumb very slightly chipped at lower right-hand corner (7/8 x 1/8 inch), otherwise fine. Hop-O' My-Thumb boldly inscribed on title-page "To the Revd. Thomas Hugo with the regards of Geo. Cruikshank Augt. 9 1853". The History of Jack & The Bean-Stalk boldly inscribed on the list of illustrations "Revd. Thos. Hugo with the regards of [three indiscernible marks] Geo. Cruikshank". Cinderella and the Glass Slipper boldly inscribed on the recto of the list of illustrations "Revd. Thos. Hugo [three indiscernible marks] with the regards of Geo. Cruikshank". Bound ca. 1880 by Francis Bedford (stamp-signed in gilt on front turn-in). Full citron morocco, covers triple-ruled in gilt, spine with five raised bands, richly decorated and lettered in gilt in compartments. Double gilt-ruled board edges, gilt decorated turn-ins, maroon paper liners and endleaves, all edges gilt. With the bookplates of Francis Wilson and Marshall Reid Anspach on front paste-down. Also with the ink signature of Francis Wilson on the first and second blank leaves. Francis Wilson was a celebrated book collector, author and contemporary of the American poet and journalist, Eugene Field (1850-1895). Marshall Reid Anspach (1895-?) was a successful and popular attorney). Loosely inserted is the original catalog description from the Francis Wilson auction sale (November 6th, 1940). ** The four titles have been bound without the rear wrappers - so they are impossible to authenticate as first issues. However the first three titles are inscribed by George Cruikshank to the Reverend Thomas Hugo and the first inscription is actually dated August 9th, 1853 - described as "A remarkable set-" The Reverend Thomas Hugo (1820-1876). "A ripe scholar, a refined English gentleman, and a stanch High Church priest, he soon attained promotion to a more congenial sphere, and served as curate for six years at St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate. He was elected a Fellow of the Societies of Antiquaries, Literature, the Linnaean, and a host of others. From his pen sprang innumerable lectures, essays, catalogues, histories and reviews. In 1858 he was appointed to the benefice of All Saints, Bishopsgate. Ten years afterwards he was instituted to the rectory of West Hackney. As will be seen on reference to his books, he was a most ardent collector of Bewickiana, - a pursuit in which he spent much time and money-" He wrote The Bewick Collector. A Supplement to a descriptive catalogue of the works of T. & J. Bewick- London: 1868. (Bigmore and Wyman. A Bibliography of Printing, p. 348). "To the Reverend Thomas Hugo, the foremost collector of Bewick, Cruikshank sent inscribed china paper proofs of the plates [Hop O' My Thumb]" (Patten. George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art, Volume 2, p.335). "Much of Cruikshank's remaining years was spent authenticating pictures and sketches and assembling copies of his works for his own collection and for Cuthbert Bede, W.H. Bruton, Sir Percy Fielding, Sir W.A. Fraser, Thomas Hugo, Frederick Locker Lampson, G.W. Reid, Truman, and other enthusiasts." (Patten. George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art, Volume 2, p.384). "Princeton's holdings of the Fairy Library are virtually complete, including copies of the earliest issues and sets of china paper proofs of the illustarations for the first three, inscribed by the artist to the Rev. Thomas Hugo and including two autograph letters to the recipient." (Patten. George Cruikshank A Revaluation, p.29). "'Puss In Boots'.. is extremely rare" (Cohn). The Fairy Library was not well-received by Cruikshank's close friend, Charles Dickens. Cruikshank (who wrote the text) in his alcohol abstinence zeal had turned these classic stories into temperance tracts. Dickens, in the October 1, 1853 issue of Household Words, wrote a review, Frauds on Fairies, that harshly criticized Cruikshank for "propagating the doctrines of Total Abstinance, Prohibition.. Free Trade, and Popular Education" (Patten II, p. 339). Yet "so even in Hop and the two stories that followed in the Fairy Library, the illustrations continue to evoke magic kingdoms while the prose cranks out diatribes" (ibid). Later, in 1864, when Routledge wished to continue the series with Puss In Boots, Cruikshank did so "purged of teetotal maxims" (ibid. p. 387) Cohn 196-199. .

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Book number: 04441

Catalogue: English Literature

Keywords: BEDFORD, Francis, binder Children's Books Color-Plate Books Fine Bindings Fairy Tales

CRUIKSHANK, George, illustrator; CAREY, David

Life in Paris

London: Printed for John Fairburn..Sold by Sherwood, Neely, and Jones [et al], 1822. Life, Wherever it Exists in the Shape of Human Character, Is Prolific of Events, and Full of the Materials of Amusement-" [CRUIKSHANK, George, illustrator]. CAREY, David. Life in Paris. Comprising the Rambles, Sprees, and Amours, of Dick Wildfire. of Corinthian Celebrity, and His Bang-Up Companions, Squire Jenkins and Captain O'Shuffleton; With the Whimsical Adventures of the Halibut Family; Including Sketches of a Variety of other eccentric Characters in the French Metropolis. London: Printed for John Fairburn.. Sold by Sherwood, Neely, and Jones [et al], 1822. First edition, early issue, bound without the half-title and the "To the Binder" leaf at rear. Octavo (8 5/16 x 5 inches; 211 x 127 mm). [iii]-xxiv, 489, [1, blank] pp. twenty-one hand-colored aquatint plates including frontispiece. Twenty-two black and white woodcut text illustrations. Plates watermarked Whatman 1821 & 1822. Some of the plates very slightly soiled and some with minor expert marginal repairs, color plate facing page 304 very slightly just touching title. Overall an excellent copy of this uncommon Cruikshank title. Late twentieth century full maroon morocco, covers double-ruled in gilt, spine with five raised bands decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments, gilt board edges and turn-ins, marbled end-papers, all edges gilt. Although unsigned the binding is of very high quality. "One of the best imitations of Pierce Egan's Life in London, 1821.. which had plates by Robert and George Cruikshank, the plates in this work being by George only. The frontispiece or engraved title here is similar in conception to that of Life in London" (Abbey, Travel). Abbey, Travel, 112. Cohn 109. Tooley 129. .

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Book number: 04311

Catalogue: English Literature

Keywords: CAREY, David Color-Plate Books Fine Bindings Nineteenth-Century Literature Cruikshankiana

CRUIKSHANK, Robert, illustrator; MATHEWS, Charles

Sketches of Mr. Mathews's Celebrated Trip to Paris

London: Printed by and For J. Limbird, [1825]. With Hand-Colored Folding Frontispiece By Robert Cruikshank [CRUIKSHANK, Robert, illustrator]. MATHEWS, Charles. Sketches of Mr. Mathews's Celebrated Trip To Paris. Comprising a Full Account of His Admirable Lecture on Peculiarities, Characters and Manners, With the Most Laughable of the Stories and Adventures, and Seven Original Comic Songs, on the Subjects of Do As Other Folks Do. Paris Is The Only Place. Delights of the Packet. Lumps and Bumps. Day At Meurice's. Heads For A Quarto. And Now Farewell To Paris Revels. And an Analysis of the Laughable Monopolylogue, La Diligence. Embellished with an Elegant Engraving by Cruikshank. London: Printed by and For J. Limbird, n.d. [1825]. Third edition, originally published in 1819 and scarce in each. Twelvemo (6 7/8 x 3 3/4 in; 174 x 93 mm). 24 pp. Folding hand-colored etched frontispiece titled "Mr. Mathews, as Miss Evelina Evergreen". Bound by Zaehnsdorf in later full crimson calf with double fillets, gilt decoration at spine head and tail, and long green morocco title label as compartment. Gilt dentelles. Top edge gilt. Gilt-rolled board edges. A fine copy. "By 1814 Mathews [1803-1878] was an extremely successful comic actor [and playwright]. After early engagements at York, Dublin and elsewhere, he had secured employment in the London theatres, where he had been performing for over a decade. Although he very much wanted to be acclaimed in the great comic roles, he was most successful in volatile, bustling roles specially written for him by the farceurs of the day and usually entailing a rapid succession of impersonations and costume changes. One of Mathews' special skills was an ability to so transform himself physically, facially and vocally that he was often completely unrecognisable" (Davis, Representing the Comic Actor at Work. Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film, Winter 2004, Vol. 31, No. 2). .

David Brass Rare Books (ABAA/ILAB)Professional seller

Book number: 02756

Catalogue: English Literature

Keywords: MATHEWS, Charles Color-Plate Books Caricatures Nineteenth-Century Literature Theater

CRUIKSHANK, George; CHAMEROVZOW, Louis Alexis

Yule Log, the

London: T.C. Newby, 1847. Illustrated by George Cruikshank with Four Full-Page Etched Plates and Two Glyphographs CRUIKSHANK, George, illustrator. [CHAMEROVZOW, Louis Alexis]. The Yule Log, for Everybody's Christmas Hearth; showing where it grew; how it was cut and brought home; and how it was burnt. By the author of "The Chronicles of the Bastile." Illustrated by George Cruikshank. London: T.C. Newby, 1847. First edition. Crown octavo (6 3/8 x 4 inches; 162 x 101 mm.). [iv], [1]-190. Four full-page etched plates and two glyphographs (one full-page). Late nineteenth century half blue morocco over marbled boards ruled in gilt, spine with five raised bands paneled and lettered in gilt in compartments, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. Gilt on spine a little dull. The etched plates very lightly foxed. A very good copy. Louis Alexis Chamerovzow (1816-1875). Anti-slavery campaigner and author. Secretary of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, transformed the memoirs of an illiterate black man, John Brown (known as Fed or Benford in his slavery in Georgia), into a powerful anti-slavery publication, Slave Life in Georgia (London, 1855). Cohn 128. .

David Brass Rare Books (ABAA/ILAB)Professional seller

Book number: 05639

Catalogue: English Literature

Keywords: CHAMEROVZOW, Louis Alexis Illustrated Books Christmas Nineteenth-Century Literature Cruikshankiana

ROYAL BINDING; Cunningham, J.W.

Velvet Cushion, the

London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, and J. Hatchard, by G. Sidney, 1815. A 19th Century Best-Seller From the Hanoverian Royal Library at Marienberg [ROYAL BINDING]. CUNNINGHAM, J. W. The Velvet Cushion. Seventh edition. London, for T. Cadell and W. Davies, and J. Hatchard, by G. Sidney, 1815. Twelvemo, (187 x 118 mm). Near-contemporary dark green cloth, front cover with the royal arms of Britain and Hanover stamped in blind, back cover with blind central cartouche, spines titled in gilt with large gilt ornaments either side, red sprinkled edges, from the Hanoverian royal library at Marienberg with pencilled shelf-mark on the inside front cover of vol. I. A few scattered spots internally, but still a fine fresh copy, the binding almost as new. First published the previous year, Cunningham's novel, subtitled “an historical account of divisions within the Church of England since the Reformation”, went through eleven editions in three years. John William Cunningham (1780–1861) was one of the leaders of the evangelical movement in the mid-19th century and a strong supporter of the Church Missionary Society. He served as curate to John Venn at Clapham parish church, the epicentre of the famous Clapham sect, and portrays Venn in the book as Berkely. Frances Trollope, who lived in Clapham, took a pot-shot at evangelicalism in general and Velvet Cunningham in particular in her scurrilous novel The Vicar of Wrexhall (1837), earning her a magisterial rebuke from Samuel Wilberforce himself for 'a most abominable personal attack'. .

David Brass Rare Books (ABAA/ILAB)Professional seller

Book number: 00394

Catalogue: English Literature

Keywords: Cunningham, J.W. History Literature Nineteenth-Century Literature Religion

DAGLEY, Richard; GASPEY, Thomas

Takings; or, the Life of a Collegian

London: John Warren, 1821. Dedicated To The Eye Of The Connoiseur DAGLEY, Richard (illustrator). [GASPEY, Thomas. author]. Takings; Or, The Life of a Collegian. A Poem. Illustrated by Twenty-Six Etchings, from Designs by R. Dagley. London: John Warren, 1821. First edition. Octavo (10 1/8 x 6 3/8 ins; 258 x 162 mm.) xxxix, [9], 184 pp. Twenty-six hand-colored plates. Publisher's original drab boards, expertly rebacked. Printed paper spine label. Untrimmed. Bookplate of John P. Kane. A fine copy. Rare, the last copy to come to auction was in 1999. The poem was anonymously written by Thomas Gaspey (1788-1871). "To the Admirers of those hasty Productions of the Pencil called Sketches, Gentlemen, In offering these subjects to your attention, I feel assured of every allowance on your part for their style of execution; and also that in your comments upon what the generality may call blots or scratches, you will lean to the favourable side, and pronounce them meaning and design. To those who are not gifted with your taste and feeling, I am aware the 'Takings' may not appear with all the advantage that I could wish; I must, therefore, request such persons to suspend their judgment till they have acquired that improved perception which finds an intentional grace, where ordinary vision sees only accident or deformity. The eye of the Connoisseur can penetrate the obscurity of redundant lines, separate their entanglements, and distinguish the latent shapes od beauty and vigour. In a scanty performance he can nevertheless discern the excellence which the artist contemplated" (Dagley, Dedication). "Richard Dagley (d. 1841), genre painter and engraver, was an orphan and was educated at Christ's Hospital, London. Having an interest in art, and being delicate, he was apprenticed to Thomas Cousens, a jeweller, watchmaker, and sometime painter of ornaments and miniatures, whose daughter Elizabeth (b. 1755) he married on 2 November 1785 at St James's, Westminster. The couple had two sons, Edward (b. 1790) and Richard (b. 1791). Dagley was a friend of Henry Bone, with whom he worked enamelling views on the backs of watches and mythological compositions on bracelets, and painting eyes for rings and brooches, as was then the fashion. He exhibited irregularly at the Royal Academy from 1785 until 1833, mostly genre pictures. His career was similarly erratic. He made several medals and took to watercolour drawing. About 1805 he was working as a drawing-master in a lady's school in Doncaster, but was back in London from 1815. "In 1818 he published A Compendium of the Theory and Practice of Drawing and Painting. Dagley reviewed books on art and, after the publication of his first book, Gems Selected from the Antique in 1804, with plates designed and engraved by him, he worked as an illustrator, most notably on Flim-Flams, a collection of anecdotes by Isaac D'Israeli, and for Takings, a humorous poem by Thomas Gaspey (1821). He also published books of his own engravings ‘illustrated’ in poetry or prose by others; his second volume on gems (1822) had poetry by Dr G. Croly and Death's Doings (1826) was a meditation on the arrival of death. Dagley's engraved work is often slight. As explained in the preface to Death's Doings: ‘I have endeavoured to show the way a certain class of writing may be embellished without incurring the expense of those laboured and highly finished engravings which make a work prohibitively expensive’. Dagley died in 1841" (Oxford DNB). Not in Tooley, Abbey, Hardie or Bobins. .

David Brass Rare Books (ABAA/ILAB)Professional seller

Book number: 02287

Catalogue: English Literature

Keywords: GASPEY, Thomas Color-Plate Books Caricatures Nineteenth-Century Literature