The Task [with] Tirocinium; or, a Review of Schools
( Richard WESTALL, illus. ) COWPER, William
[With engravings after designs by Richard Westall].
BRIGHT, CRISP COPY IN PERIOD BINDING
Published: Printed [by Whittingham at the Chiswick Press] for John Sharpe Duke Street Piccadilly, 1825
Stock code: 14091
Price: £148.00
12mo., on laid paper, with engraved frontispiece, half-title, engraved and printed titles and 6 engraved plates, plates moderately spotted; attractively bound in mid-nineteenth century full rose calf, sides with triple frame border stopped at corners by rosettes all in gilt, enclosing a triple frame border stopped at corners by rosettes all in blind, the space between filled with an elaborate arabesque in blind, back with four raised bands tooled in gilt, second and fourth compartments lettered in gilt, all other compartments richly tooled in gilt, gilt doublures, gilt edges, marbled endpapers, brown silk marker, binding mildly age-worn and faded at extremities (but all lettering wholly legible) else a most attractive, textually clean, crisp copy.
This handsome 12mo edition derives directly from the foolscap octavo edition of 1817. The engravings (save the last) are by Rolls after designs by Richard Westall. The engraving to Book VI of The Task is by Romney; all the plates are re-engraved and dated March 25, 1825, but notably the frontispiece differs considerably from that of its 1817 forerunner. Some of the vignettes have been reduced in size and the headings and imprints brought closer to accommodate the 16mo edition as well as the present 12mo format. An attractive if faded copy. Russell, 145.