The Fables of Aesop with a Life of the Author
( Samuel CROXALL, trans. ) ( William Blake, illus. ) AESOP
Embellished with One Hundred and Twelve Plates. [Translation by Samuel Croxall.]
STOCKDALE'S AESOP: THE CROZIER COPY ON LARGE PAPER
Published: Printed for John Stockdale Piccadilly
Stock code: 41457
Price: £1,600.00
2 vols., roy. 8vo., First Edition thus, LARGE PAPER, with engraved title-vignettes and 110 fine full-page engraved plates; handsomely bound in contemporary full brown diced calf, boards with triple frame border enclosing decorative frame all in gilt, backs with raised bands ruled in gilt, second and fourth compartments lettered and numbered in gilt, all other compartments elaborately tooled in gilt with a geometrical floral flourish, marbled edges, gilt doublures, marbled endpapers, expertly rebacked with old backstrips laid down, a splendid, crisp and remarkably clean copy in sympathetically restored period binding.
WITH THE FINE ENGRAVED ARMORIAL BOOKPLATE OF RAWSON BODDAM CROZIER [1775-1849] ON FRONT PASTE-DOWNS. FIRST EDITION OF THIS SELECTION. Large Paper copies are invariably [as here] the first issue with uncorrected page numeral [891] on p.198, and issued without Stockdale's later advertisement leaf for his edition of Gay's Fables. This selection comprises 110 fables, each illustrated with a superb full-page engraving by Blake, Clarke, Eastgate, Grainger, Landseer, Stothard and several other artists. Croxall compiled his translation (first published in 1722) to rival the well-known version of Roger L'Estrange (first published 1692, many times reprinted and prior to Croxall the well-nigh 'standard' text). Croxall accuses his predecessor of Jacobite tendencies, but has himself not resisted the temptation to incorporate political overtones into what is primarily a children's book. A SPLENDID COPY OF THE FIRST STOCKDALE EDITION AND SCARCE IN THIS CONDITION.