Select Fables & The Fables of Aesop and Others - Two Volumes - Thomas Bewick - Antique Books

Author: Thomas Bewick (1753 ~1828) Title: "Select Fables" (Select fables; with cuts, designed and engraved by Thomas and John Bewick, and others.) & "The Fables of Aesop and Others" (The fables of Aesop and others.) - A set of two volumes. Pages xl + 332 & pages xxiv + 376. Imprint: Newcastle. printed by S. Hodgson for Emerson Charnley and Baldwin Craock, and Joy, London. & Newcastle. printed by E. Walker, for T. Bewick & Son. Sold by them, Longman and co. London, and all booksellers. Technique: Letterpress printing and wood engraving. "Select Fables" contains 345 wood-engraved illustrations by Thomas Bewick and John Bewick (1760 ~1795); "The Fables of Aesop and Others" contains 324 wood-engraved illustrations by Thomas Bewick. Bound in claret-colored striped goatskin morocco, with neoclassical gilt ornamentation. The front cover features a gilt crest of the collector (Spanish inscription: "no hay mas cierto y deleitoso amigo que el buen libro" - there is no truer, more delightful friend than a good book. Initials: MCD), and the back cover also has a gilt crest (Spanish inscription: "Aquellos son ricos que tienen amigos" - Those are rich who have friends. Initials: MC). The binding shows slight wear. The inside of the front flyleaf bears the lead type signature of the binder, William Mansell (a 19th-century English binder). Marbled endpapers, with a bookplate of the collector (inscription: "Libros y Amigo Pogos y Bienos" - Books and Friends make us jump for joy and are good). Gilt edges on three sides. Date: 1820 First Edition & 1823 Second Edition. Dimensions: Folio (14.5 x 22 cm). (BO 88) When discussing the illustrations in "Select Fables" and "The Fables of Aesop and Others," it is essential to understand the technique employed: wood engraving, commonly known in Chinese as "mù kǒu mù kè" due to the use of the woodblock's cross-section. Wood engraving, as the name suggests, relates to the hardness of the woodblock used for carving, not necessarily the type of wood. Traditional woodcuts use blocks taken from the longitudinal section of a tree. In contrast, wood engraving uses the cross-section, where the grain is perpendicular to the carving surface, making it harder and denser than the longitudinal section. This harder surface, difficult to work with traditional carving tools, led to the use of burins, similar to those used in copperplate engraving. This resulted in precise and fine lines, akin to copperplate engraving, rendering images with greater subtlety than traditional woodcuts and comparable to copperplate effects. The hardness of the wood allowed for greater pressure during printing, increasing the number of impressions and leading to its widespread use in the 19th century for reproduction and book illustrations, supplanting copperplate engraving. Copperplate engraving then moved towards more exquisite printing, with greater attention to paper and design. However, this does not imply that wood engraving played only a functional role in cultural dissemination. This new technique, combined with the spirit of traditional woodcutting, also produced outstanding artistic works. Thomas Bewick (1753~1828), an Englishman, is considered the pioneer of this technique. He initially studied various copperplate techniques and later learned traditional woodcutting from his teacher, Ralph Beilby (1744~1817). Bewick continuously sought to improve woodcutting techniques to replace copperplate illustrations in books. Finally, by combining the burin of copperplate engraving with the hard surface of a wood's cross-section, he achieved his ideal. In 1775, the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce supported the development of wood engraving, officially recognizing Bewick's invention. The following year, he partnered with his teacher Beilby to run a workshop, which quickly became the leading wood engraving establishment in Newcastle. In 1790, Bewick and his teacher's workshop jointly published "History of Quadrupeds," initially intended as a natural history reader for children, but it captured the attention of adult readers. They later released the more serious "A History of British Birds." Bewick was responsible for the illustrations, while his teacher wrote the text. However, Beilby struggled to complete the work, and Bewick ended up completing most of the text himself, leading to a dispute over authorship. The book was published in 1797 and met with great success. While preparing the second volume on waterfowl, Bewick and his teacher finally parted ways over the authorship issue, ending their partnership. In 1804, Bewick, with the assistance of his apprentices, completed the publication of the second volume, "Waterfowl." In addition to the two significant works, "History of Quadrupeds" and "A History of British Birds," Bewick dedicated much of his life to creating illustrations for fables, including the two volumes in our collection: "Select Fables" (Select fables; with cuts, designed and engraved by Thomas and John Bewick, and others.) and "The Fables of Aesop and Others" (The fables of Aesop, and others). As an apprentice, he produced illustrations for the Newcastle bookseller Thomas Saint, using Robert Dodsley's text of "Select Fables," published in 1776. In 1784, he and his brother John created another three-volume edition of "Select Fables" for Thomas Saint, partly using the plates from the 1776 edition. After recovering from a serious illness in 1812, Bewick refocused on his long-planned work, "The Fables of Aesop and Others," completing and publishing it in 1818. He divided this book into three categories of fables: the first category selected some fables from Dodsley's edition, with brief moral lessons; the second category included fables for reflection with longer exegetical texts; and the third category comprised poetic fables, including those written in verse by unknown authors. Bewick first designed the illustrations on woodblocks, then handed them over to apprentices for engraving, with mutual supervision of the carving quality, and Bewick would make final revisions if needed. In this edition, Bewick employed the "white-line" engraving technique for the illustrations, a method that progresses from dark to light, where the white lines are carved away from the block. Our edition is the 1820 new edition of "Select Fables," using the 1784 plates, but newly includes Bewick's memoirs and a catalogue of his works, offering a glimpse into the artist's unique achievements. This edition features 166 fables, with each fable preceded by a boxed and oval illustration, and followed by decorative tailpieces unrelated to the fable. "The Fables of Aesop and Others" is the second edition from 1823, containing 188 fables, also preceded by framed and oval illustrations and 131 decorative tailpieces. Both volumes are uniformly bound by the English binder William Mansell. Mansell purchased the brand of another outstanding English binder, James Hayday (1796 ~1872), who, despite his skill, could not compete with cheaper craftsmen and went bankrupt in 1861. Mansell used high-quality claret-colored goatskin morocco, with simple neoclassical gilt ornamentation, leaving the central panels on the front and back covers for the collector's gilt crests. Judging by the inscriptions on the crests and the bookplate, the collector was likely Spanish nobility. After Bewick's death, his fame endured. The wood engraving technique he developed became widely adopted across Europe. The prominent English art critic John Ruskin (1819~1900) compared Bewick's delicate illustrations to those of Holbein (c. 1497 ~1543), Turner (1775 ~1851), and Veronese (1528~1588), considering his depiction of bird feathers an unprecedented achievement in wood engraving. Today, artists working in wood engraving generally recognize Bewick's pioneering role, crediting him with ushering in a revolutionary era for the medium. *Please feel free to message the designer with any detailed inquiries. *The items in this design studio primarily feature Western antiques, vintage jewelry and home decor, and old European prints and books. As these are vintage items, they inevitably bear traces of their history and the passage of time. However, they are thoughtfully arranged with personal taste to complement each space, fostering an extraordinary sense of lifestyle and aesthetic. Those who are sensitive to such details are kindly advised to consider carefully before placing an order.