Select Fables With Cuts Designed and Engraved from Thomas and John Bewick and Others, Previous to the Year 1784: Together with a Memoir and a Descriptive Catalogue of the Works of Messrs. Bewick.

London: S. Hodgson, for Emerson Charnley, and Baldwin, Cradock and Joy. 1820. Imperial 8vo (26.5 by 16.5 cm). Contemporary tan calf over marbled boards, spine with morocco lettering-piece; pp. [2], xl, 332, portrait-frontispiece engraved by Charlton Nesbit (on thinner paper), title-page with wood-engraved vignette, wood-engraved vignettes and illustrations throughout; extremities a little worn, internally only here and there the lightest of spotting, very few contemporary ms. annotations; a very clean and crisp copy.First edition of this compilation of vignettes and fable illustrations by Bewick, together with a memoir and a catalogue of his oeuvre. The Newcastle publisher and printers collected original wooblocks from various sources and produced this bibliophile book. The prospectus for the work of 1819 announced ". the impression will consist of a very limited number" (Tattersfield II, p. 624). The work appeared in three formats, demi 8vo, Royal 8vo, and this - the rarest - Imperial 8vo. The present copy is printed on remarkably thick paper, with the watermark dated 1818. Some of the earliest wood-engravings by the technique's inventor and pioneer are featured in this beautiful book.…