Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$64.41 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: UNCOMMON EDITION : vignette title and full-page illustrations by Thomas Bewick, scattered faint spotting, faint abrasion mark to front endpapers where bookplate removed, contemporary straight-grain morocco, gilt, gilt edged pages, rubbed to surface and extremities. The type or font style is impressive, making for easy reading. Remains a secure, tight copy, front hinge showing, but not affecting the books sturdiness { see image }.xx, 286, [6] pages : illustrations ; Includes index."Life of James Thomson" by Samuel Johnson; p. [i]-xx [TB 2.569]
Seller: BiblioFile, Cadole, FLINT, United Kingdom
Price: US$120.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 2 volume set. Rebound in modern black cloth with gold lettering. Marbled end pages. Tight bindings. Foxing. Originally published in the London Public Advisor from Jan. 21, 1769 to Jan. 21, 1772, under the pseudonym of "Junius" (possibly Sir Philip Francis). " Junius poured brilliantly slanderous invective upon Tory-minded English ministers, especially the Duke of Grafton, for a series of inconsistent measures which allegedly ruined England. Junius prophesised early that the colonies eventual aim would be independence.
Seller: Sequitur Books, Boonsboro, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$418.69 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Printed by Edward Walker for T. Bewick: Sold by him, and Longman and Rees , London. Volume 1 3rd edn. Volume 2 2nd edition. Vol I xxxviii, pp346. Vol II xxii, pp400. Full polished calf with morocco title labels. Elaborate tooling to spine. A few marks/scuffs/chipping. Leather crack at very top of spines. Page-blocks dusty. Foxing to end papers/last few of pages otherwise contents of both volumes are remarkably clean and fresh with just occasional pages with the odd spot, handling mark and 4 consecutive pages with a larger spot to top margin. Attractive bookplate to inners. Booksellers label to inner of volume I. Binding sound. Boards secure. Inner margin tear to ix-xii of volume II (please see image). Pages are pulled below tear. A solid good set. Heavy set. UK postage £7.90. Postage/tracking to be agreed for order outside UK thanks
Seller: Wylie Books, Buckfastleigh, United Kingdom
Price: US$483.10 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Two Vols, 3rd & 2nd editions, 1805, VG+, 414 illustrations in total. In Royal Octavo, contemporary speckled full calf, corners & edges rubbed. Spines, decorative gilt tooling, gilt titles to green calf labels. Internally, Vol 1, 1805, 3rd ed, Land Birds, [3], (iv-xxxviii), [1], 2-346 pp, 231 illustrations. Vol 2, 1805, 2nd ed, Water Birds, [3], (iv-xxii), [1], 2-400 pp, 183 illustrations. Bookplate to fpds (George Duckworth/Bridgete Watkin 1872), ink name etched out to V1, fep (G Sawye?). ( 238*143 mm).
Seller: Madoc Books (ABA-ILAB), Llandudno, CONWY, United Kingdom
Price: US$966.20 + shipping
Description: Engraved surfaces c. 50 × 60 mm, leaves c. 95-105 × 105-130 mm, laid paper, no watermarks; with a later leaf of similar size inscribed '26. Kings of England not all in their proper order / J[ane] Bewick', with the later notes 'Jupp Collection 1878' and 'Unique Set / Burnished from the Blocks not printed / E. P.'; all at one time affixed with a pin in the upper left corner, now loose.Twenty-six apparently unrecorded wood-engravings heads of the monarchs of England from William the Conqueror to George III these images taken by rubbing from the blocks rather than printing. The engravings bear strong similarity to the 26 which appear in An Abridgement of the History of England by Dr. Goldsmith with Heads by Bewick (London, 1803), of which Thomas Bewick apparently bought a copy on 20 April of that year: his account book records a 'Parcel / Goldsmith Hisy Engd / Grafton Piccy 4s d.' (A Provisional Checklist of the Library of Thomas Bewick, by David Gardner-Medwin, item 1, online).Though Hugo attributes the cuts in the Goldsmith Abridgement to Thomas Bewick, other bibliographers have been less certain. The 26 heads, plus several more (Stephen, Cromwell etc.), had earlier appeared in Characters of the Kings and Queens of England (Newbery, 1795), also with a title-page attribution to 'T. Bewick of Newcastle'; but 'The statement on TP that the "Heads" are by T. Bewick cannot be accepted. One hesitates to attribute them to his brother John, even to his workshop' (Roscoe). The subject matter is more in the realm of John, who had produced 36 heads for a Sketch of Universal History (1789, Tattersfield JB57) and another series of 32 for A Compendious History of England (1794, JB11).The images in the present set, 'burnished from the blocks', are larger and finer than those of 1795/1803, and are in an unbordered oblong format rather than in oval cartouches. The heads for Henry I, Henry II, Henry V, Edward IV, Edward VI, Elizabeth, Charles II, James II, and Anne are reversed (i.e. when actually pulled from the blocks they would be correct), while those for Richard I, Mary, and George III are different images entirely. Richard I and Henry VIII have splits in the block; Edward I is perhaps by an inferior hand. It is however unclear whether they precede the 1795 set (the presence of some details of dress not in the latter set might suggest this), or derive from them (perhaps as a workshop exercise?).The Bewick collection of Edward Basil Jupp was sold at Christie's on 25-7 February 1878, containing engravings, drawings and original woodblocks. Though the present set was not mentioned by name, lot 300 was a scrapbook of 420 engravings including 'Heads of the Kings of England' (sold for £2 10s. to Swinburne) and perhaps included them. 'Most of these Wood Engravings were purchased of Miss Jane Bewick by the late Mr. Jupp'; the present set, with its approbation in Jane's hand, presumably has the same origin. Jane, Thomas's daughter, dealt with much of Bewick's business affairs, was his literary executor, as well as the editor of his Memoirs, and along with her sisters, kept guard over a hoard of 'woodblocks, drawings, proofs and tools in the house at Gateshead' (Uglow, Nature's Engraver).
Seller: Bernard Quaritch Ltd ABA ILAB, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$1030.61 + shipping
Description: Two volume set with wood engravings throughout. Large 8vo. Hardbacks. With bookplate of Thomas Holme Maude (1770-1849) to both volumes. Minor, scattered spotting, o/w. contents very bright and fine. Contemporary straight-grained half-morocco over marbled boards with matching end-papers; showing minor wear at top of spine of Vol. II, o/w. in thor. vg. condition. A very pleasing large paper set. The success of the History of British Birds was immediate and complete; six editions were issued in Bewicks lifetime (Mullens and Swann).
Seller: C. Arden (Bookseller) ABA, Hay-on-Wye, United Kingdom