BEWICK, THOMAS.

Newcastle, R. Ward, 1862. Large 8vo. XIX,(1 blank),344 pp. With numerous wood engravings. Uncut in contemporary full green morocco, covers ruled in gilt. Spine in compartments with raised bands, attractively tooled and lettered in gilt, with elaborate inner gilt dentelles and moiré silk pastedowns. Top edge gilt (R. T. Harris, Exeter). Spine a little sunned, with a few minor scratches to covers. Extremities slightly rubbed and worn. Aside from some light marginal browning, clean and fresh, and an attractive copy. From the library of Gunnar Brusewitz with his bookplate.

Tattersfield Thomas Bewick 2:379. Westwood & Satchell Bibliotheca piscatoria 31. First edition of this detailed autobiography of the man considered by many to be the father of English wood engraving. One of the greatest English natural history illustrators, and certainly one of the most famous, Bewick’s ”General History of Quadrupeds” and ”History of British Birds” were not only seminal natural history works, but also notable works of art. Through his numerous engravings, Bewick brought nature to life in a way not seen before and revived the nearly forgotten art of wood engraving. In the numerous vignettes and tailpieces which adorned the books, he portrayed a seemingly idyllic countrylife. Bewick wrote the present work for his daughter Jane. Parallel to its writing, he planned and executed the illustrations, but passed away before he could get it under the press. The cut of the funeral procession on p. 286 is thought to be the last cut engraved by him. Many tried to convince Jane to publish the book in the years and decades that followed, but she guarded it jealously. By the late 1850s she begun to fear that the Memoir would be ”mangled by others after her decease”, and decided to publish it after some heavy editing both by herself and the publisher. The unfortunate editing left the book, in Tattersfield’s words, ”a hotchpotch of illustrations, with the appendix of cuts for the ’History of British Fishes’ (plus three small cuts for a long-superseded edition of ’Robin Hood’) providing a disappointing conclusion.”