BEWICK, THOMAS & (BEILBY, RALPH).

Newcastle, S. Hodgson, R. Beilby, & T. Bewick, 1790. 8vo. VIII,456 pp. With 200 wood-engraved figures of quadrupeds, 103 wood-engraved tailpieces and 1 wood-engraved figure in text. Almost uncut in modern brown morocco-backed marbled boards, spine tooled and lettered in gilt, top edge gilt, a blank leaf, probably being a blank front cover, preserved. Small specks at lower part of spine. Light browning and some soiling throughout, with more prominent stain affecting pp. 427-436. Outer margins of pp. 9, 148 and 149 with later paper repairs, lower margin of p. 149 also repaired with neat repair to vertical tear affecting a couple of letters, two further neat repairs to vertical tears at pp. 61 and 163. Tear at upper margin of p. 60 not affecting text, large nick with loss to outer margin of p. 122, and lower margin of p. 135 excised. Old annotation in pencil on the blank front cover. With the bookplate of Gunnar Brusewitz and his signature in ink. Despite faults an appealing large copy.

Nissen Die zoologische Buchillustration 315. Tattersfield Thomas Bewick 1.1. Roscoe Thomas Bewick a bibliography raisonné 1b, variant B. Thomas Bewick’s beautifully illustrated study of the mammals of the world, which revealed his considerable skills as an engraver for the first time, and ultimately led to a renaissance in wood engraved illustration. Though never formally taught, Bewick (1753-1828) showed a talent for drawing from an early age. In 1767, when he was 14, he was apprenticed to Ralph Beilby, an engraver in Newcastle whose name appears in the imprint of the present work together with Bewick’s. In 1775 Bewick received a premium from the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce and became a partner in Beilby’s workshop in the following year. ”A General History of Quadrupeds” was his first publication and appeared in 1790. In this ambitious work, over 250 mammals of the world are described, of which over 200 are illustrated, ranging from cats to bats, and lions to seals. It is particularly strong on domestic and local animals and Bewick had acquired an intimate knowledge of their habits during his constant excursions into the countryside as a devoted naturalist and ornithologist. Whilst renowned for the skill and accuracy of the depictions, it is the inclusion of a further 103 humorous tailpiece vignettes that helped to seal the work’s enduring popularity and success. By the late 18th century, the woodblock was the poor relation to steel or copper engravings. Bewick, unlike his predecessors, would carve in harder woods, notably boxwood, against the grain, using fine tools normally favoured by metal engravers. This proved to be far superior, and in so doing Bewick revolutionised the printing of illustrations using wood and brought the medium back to life and popularity. Bewick’s teacher Ralph Beilby (1744-1817) was an English engraver, working chiefly on silver and copper. The texts for Bewick’s ”A General History of Quadrupeds” (1790) and ”History of British Birds: Land Birds” (1797) were drafted by Beilby and revised by Bewick. Both works proved immensely popular and went through numerous editions and variants. The present copy does not have the watermark ”TW” at p. 328. The fly on p. 176 faces right, and the opossum on p. 376 is not labelled (indexed as Opossum of New South Wales; and subsequently called the Squirrel-opossum in the second edition) which accounts for the ”wrong” catchword on p. 375. The annotation on the blank cover paper tells us that Bewick had the opportunity to show his skills as an illustrator to the Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia when he visited Newcastle on the 14th of December 1816.