A General History of Quadrupeds
- Publisher : S. Hodgson, R. Beilby, & T. Bewick
- Published In : Newcastle upon Tyne
- Illustrations : wood engravings to text
Description:
Second edition (considered the best), published only fourteen and a half months after the first (in May 1790). Roscoe describes the second edition as '... No mere reprint ... A largely revised, expanded, and improved work. Impressions of the cuts are far more satisfactory, there are drastic revisions and many additions in the text, many blocks have been reworked, twelve new figures are added, and the fourteen descriptions of bats make their first appearance.'
This edition was published in two sizes, demy 8vo and royal 8vo. This is the larger roy. 8vo edition, [PRICE TWELVE SHILLINGS IN BOARDS.] to title-page, of which only 300 copies were printed.
Roscoe 2a, variant A.
Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) was a passionate naturalist, ‘a son of nature’, as Audubon called him, a man immersed in the English countryside. He is considered as England’s most masterly engraver, and his books, ‘A General History of Quadrupeds’ (first published 1790) and ‘History of British Birds’ (2 vols first published 1797, 1804) are illustrated with Bewick's charming wood engravings. Bewick created these books with the purpose of instructing the youth, remarking on his illustrations, ‘… I illustrated them by figures delineated with all the fidelity and animation I was able to impart to mere woodcuts without colour; and as instruction is of little avail without constant cheerfulness and occasional amusement, I interspersed the more serious studies with Tale-pieces of gaiety and humour.’ (Roscoe, p. xv).
Condition
Roy. 8vo (240x150mm), cont. full speckled calf with central oval to each board with tree calf pattern, dec. gilt border to both boards, gilt beading to edges (rubbed), ornate gilt tooling to spines, leather title-pieces, speckled edges, marbled endpapers; front joint cracked, rear joint partly cracked, but both boards firmly attached. Some foxing. A press cutting from the Tyne Mercury, dated in ms Nov. 1828, announcing the death of Mr. Thomas Bewick, is pasted to the verso of the front free endpaper. An attractive copy.