About this Item
The scarce first edition of Bowles's Moral Pictures, or, Poor Richard Illustrated, a collection of charmingly illustrated maxims from Benjamin Franklin's Way to Wealth, published in many shapes and forms over the years for the entertainment and edification of young people in Britain and America. The artist, Robert Dighton, was a prolific caricaturist and printseller who worked primarily in partnership with the publisher, Carington Bowles. While his caricatures were what made ends meet, he may be best known for the present series of illustrations, which have appeared in a profusion of editions and formats over the years in both England and America, including a Manchester edition only a year after this first, a Boston edition printed just after the Civil War, contemporary and later jigsaw puzzles, folding pocket issues, and even a 20th-century series printed on individual ceramic tiles. The sense of humor and eye-catching scenes which served Dighton well as a contemporary of Gilray and Cruikshank are on full display in this print, with entertaining vignettes illustrating such classic maxims as "Three removes are as bad as a fire; and a rolling stone gathers no moss," "The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands," and "Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." "Not to oversee workmen, is to leave them your purse open," portraying a comedy of errors occurring near a barn, is perhaps particularly appropriate Dighton himself would soon be discovered stealing and reselling prints from the British Museum with the help of a Museum employee. OCLC records copies of this edition at four institutions: the Huntington Library, Yale, Princeton, and the University of Wisconsin (with Yale and Princeton holding also the folding and jigsaw issues). We also locate a copy at the Met. A rare and enduring series of illustrations for a classic piece of Frankliniana. OCLC 45449290. FORD, FRANKLIN 137* (Manchester ed.). Top margin trimmed unevenly, not touching image or text. Tanned, light foxing to image, heavier outside platemark. Laid down on card and evidently removed from a prior frame. Good plus.
Seller Inventory # 66367
Contact seller
Report this item
