Author: Bewick, Thomas
Title: A General History of Quadrupeds
Description: S. Hodgson, R. Beilby, & T. Bewick 1791 x, 483, wood engravings to text. . HB. Demy 8vo (220x140mm), near cont. half calf, rubbed, wear to corners and spine, slight loss to head/foot of spine, leather title piece, marbled boards, rubbed/scuffed. Hinges cracked but firmly held by cords. Front flyleaf torn to top of gutter. Occasional light spotting. Bookplate of D.B. de Moleyns. Good.. 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 smaller, demy 8vo edition, [PRICE NINE SHILLINGS IN BOARDS.] to title page. Roscoe 2b, variant B.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 are illustrated with his 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)..

Keywords: ABA03-2022; Britain; Mammals; Natural History Illustration; Thomas Bewick; Wood Engravings


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