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Bewick, Thomas.
A Memoir of Thomas Bewick, Written by Himself.
Publisher: Printed by Robert Ward for Jane Bewick/ Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, Newcastle-on-Tyne & London;
Date of Publication: 1862
Stock Code: 8598
FIRST EDITION. Association copy, including the second state of Bewick’s Prize Cut on satin. Small quarto, pp. xix, [1], 344. 3 plates including frontispiece of Cherryburn, vignette to title page and numerous engravings throughout, including 16 illustrations of fish to Appendix and an additional plate of “The Maigre”. Publishers’ original pebbled bottle-green cloth with blind-stamped floral motifs inside border to boards, and gilt titles to spine. Spine tips a little creased; minor wear to corners. Bookplate of Pamela and Rymond Lister to front paste-down. Presentation inscription to verso pp [xx]: “ Thomas Plumpton Tindale with an extra plate printed on white satin Presented by Jane Bewick” above the pasted in Hound and Huntsman plate. Bewick’s classic postumously published autobiographical work. Bewick’s master Ralph Beilby entered some of Bewick’s woodcuts into a competition after his apprenticeship was completed; the prestigious national award “for the best engraving on wood or type metal for illustrating books...” was organised by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts in London and Bewick won joint first prize of seven guineas, which he gave to his mother. The Hound and the Huntsman cut became known as Bewick’s ‘Prize Cut’ and the award was a source of family pride: “ I... never in my life felt greater pleasure than in that of presenting it to my Mother”. Recipient Thomas Plumpton Tindale (1849-75) was a singular collector, natural historian and poet, best known for “Floating Spars” published posthumously in 1876. This impression of the Hound and Huntsman plate on satin was almost certainly printed for Jane and Isabella Bewick to further promote the legacy of their father. £400.00