1.685 Ergebnisse
Best.-Nr. 05078London: Printed by H. Hills jun. for Francis Barlow and are to be sold by Chr. Wilkinson Tho. Fox and Henry Faithorne 1687. The First Edition To Contain The Thirty-One Magnificent Full-Page Engravings Including The Rare Suppressed Plate Number Seventeen A Lovely Copy in Late Nineteenth Century Straight-Grain Roan AESOP. Æsop's Fables with His Life: in English French and Latin. Newly Translated. Illustrated with One hundred and twelve Sculptures. To this Edition are likewise added Thirty one New Figures representing his Life. By Francis Barlow. London: Printed by H. Hills jun. for Francis Barlow and are to be sold by Chr. Wilkinson Tho. Fox and Henry Faithorne 1687. Second edition first published in 1666. Virtually all copies of the first edition were destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666. This is the first edition to contain the additional thirty-one full-page engraved plates. Folio 11 3/4 x 7 9/16 inches; 300 x 195 mm. 2 blank verso engraved pictorial title 2 title verso blank 2 To the Reader verso blank 2 dedication 2 blank verso full-page engraving of Aesop surrounded by animals and birds 40 40 17 2-221 2 Table verso blank pp. Full page engraved plate of the arms of the Earl of Devonshire and thirty-one including the suppressed plate No. 17 "Oft for a jest we expose our modesty" which is often suppressed excised or defaced full page engraved plates by Thomas Dudley after Francis Barlow illustrating the life of Aesop and 110 half page engravings in the text. The thirty-one additional plates are bound within the forty pages of English text. These plates were engraved in 1678 - this second edition is the first to contain these superb engravings. Bound ca. 1876 in full maroon straight-grain roan covers decoratively ruled and paneled in gilt spine with six raised bands elaborately decorated and lettered in gilt in compartments gilt-ruled board edges and decorative gilt turn-ins all edges gilt. A sophisticated copy an example of the fashion towards the end of the 19th century of improving copies with a pencil note on the verso of the initial binder's blank "The best impressions were picked from two copies to make this a very choice copy of the book. Robert Roberts. Boston Oct 9/1876". The 17th plate "Oft for a jest we expose our modesty." which was often suppressed excised or defaced is here present and unmutilated. Neat pencilled presentation inscription dated 1925 to front free endpaper 1735 ink ownership signature at top margin of title-page. Small expert and almost invisible paper repairs to blank margins of engraved title page small hole 1/2 x 3/16 inch neatly repaired hardly affecting image on plate 14. Small neat marginal repairs to O2 pp. 35/36 V2 pp. 59/60 small hole repaired on BB2 pp. 79/80 - just touching image on recto and two letters on verso and top corner of EE2 pp. 91/92 expertly renewed with loss of page number on p.92. Occasional minimal light soiling and or foxing but overall a clean and crisp example of this magnificent and beautiful edition. For this second edition of his magnificent production Barlow commissioned Aphra Behn then at the height of her popularity as a playwright poet and translator to write a quatrain summarizing the fable and to be engraved on the 110 plates illustrating the fables. In order to substitute Behn's verses for those of Thomas Philipot d. 1682 the lower area of the plate needed to be burnished down and the new verses engraved onto the plate in place of the earlier ones. "The workman doing the burnishing feared damaging the bottom border of the design above the verse: in many places traces of the tops of the letters in Philipot's top lines remain. In a few instances a small new plate for the new verse had to be inserted."Hodnett. "I Conceive it necessary to say concerning the Present Edition of this Work; That it exceeds the Former by a careful Correction of the Latin Copy and by a more Exact Translation from the Latest and Best French Edition. The Life of Aesop likewise is illustrated with Thirty one new Copper Plates. The Ingenious Mrs. A. Behn has been so obliging as to perform the English Poetry which in short comprehends the Sense of the Fable and Moral: Whereof to say much were needless since it may sufficiently recommend it self to all Persons of Understanding." To the Reader leaf. "The fables and plates are printed here in the same manner as in the first edition the French version on the verso of each leaf facing the plate and Latin version on the recto of the following leaf. The thirty-one additional plates illustrating the life of Æsop are placed at the end of the volume. They are preceded by the plate representing Æsop surrounded by animals and birds which formed the first plate to the first edition. Plate No. 17 is usually wanting being generally removed as too free a character. Nearly all of them are signed "Tho: Dudley fecit". Grolier Wither to Prior. Francis Barlow 1626-1704 was the first English-born book illustrator. He was also the first English etcher modern animal and bird artist recorder of sporting scenes political cartoonist and possibly modern landscape artist. The lifelikeness of his animal and bird drawings prints and paintings attracted the admiration of the founders of the Royal Society and allied him with the scientific spirit of the seventeenth century. Barlow was moreover an interesting illustrator of great freshness and vigor." Edward Hodnett. Five Centuries of English Book Illustration p. 54. "This seventeenth-century polyglot English-French-Latin Aesop is handsomely illustrated with engravings after designs by Francis Barlow 1626-1702 an English painter renowned for his pictures of country life and field sports. He was perhaps the finest English draughtsman of animal scenes in the seventeenth century. Barlow who published the book at his own expense explains in his preface that he intends the work to contribute to the education of young people. This is the first edition; the relatively few copies known are all survivors of the Great Fire of London which swept over the printer's premises in 1666" Morgan Library Early Children's Books - citing the 1666 first edition. Felix Thornley Cobbold 1841-1909 was a British barrister and Liberal Party politician. Cobbold was the son of John Cobbold Member of Parliament for Ipswich and his wife Lucy daughter of Henry Patteson sometime Rector of Drinkstone and of Wortham Suffolk. John Cobbold Thomas Cobbold and Nathaniel Cobbold grandfather of Cameron Cobbold 1st Baron Cobbold were his elder brothers. He was educated at King's College Cambridge and later became a senior fellow of this college. Cobbold also sat as Member of Parliament for Stowmarket in Suffolk between 1885 and 1886 and for Ipswich between 1906 and his death. In 1895 he presented Christchurch Mansion to the town of Ipswich as part of an arrangement to preserve the mansion and surrounding Christchurch Park from development. He also bequeathed Gippeswyk Park to Ipswich. Cobbold died in December 1909 aged 68. Grolier Wither to Prior 666; Hodnett Aesop in England pp. 56-59 and 72; Morgan Library Early Children's Books 9 describing the 1666 first edition; Wing A703; ESTC R22992. London: Printed by H. Hills jun. for Francis Barlow, and are to be sold by Chr. Wilkinson, Tho. Fox, and Henry Faithorne, 1687 unknown books
1668Best.-Nr. A-110Volume I--Second Edition The Fables of Aesop Paraphras'd in Verse: Adorn'd with Sculpture. London: Printed by Thomas Roycroft for the Author 1668. Second edition with new title page a re-issue of the 1665 edition sheets. This volume contains the frontispiece engraved vignettes and initials missing Ogilby portrait and has all eighty-one full-paged plates in fabulous condition. Light yellowing/browning of initial few pages as regular. Volume II--Second Edition Aesopics or a Second Collection of Fables illustrated with sixty-eight full-paged plates in early issue before captions were added. Pages are remarkably clean without any browning. Large folio volumes both illustrated throughout; Wenceslaus Hollar 1607-1677 engraved eighty-eight of the illustrations for these works the others were executed by Dirck Stoop c. 1610-1686 and Francis Barlow c. 1626-1704. Both volumes are uniformly re-bound with original leather panels inset in full brick morocco bindings with gilt titles. Thomas Roycroft for the Author, 1668 hardcover
1931Best.-Nr. 82103New York:: Harrison of Paris; Minton Balch and Company 1931. First edition; one of twenty copies marked "not for Sale" and including an original signed Calder ink drawing which was not used in the publication hinged in after the front free endpaper as issued. . publisher's boards in lettered dust jacket and glassine wrapper; in the publisher's maroon chemise and slipcase with printed paper labels on front panel and the spine of the chemise. . A very fine copy in a slightly sunned slipcase with a little rubbing / use at extremities and tanning to the paper label on the spine of the chemise. 4to. With Fifth Drawings by Alexander Calder. The unused drawing appears to illustrate the story of "A Dog and a Thief" at p. 116. This copy is printed on Guarros' Spanish pure rag paper with coloured silk threads. Harrison of Paris; Minton, Balch and Company, hardcover
1931Best.-Nr. 183084Paris & New York: Harrison Minton Balch and Company 1931. With an original signed drawing First edition limited issue number XXVII of 50 copies with a tipped-in original published drawing signed by the artist. The drawing in this copy is from the Cock and Diamond fable. The text of the present edition is based on Roger L'Estrange's translation of Aesop's Fables 1692. Harrison of Paris was founded by publisher and heiress Barbara Harrison Wescott 1904-1977 and art patron and curator Monroe Wheeler 1899-1988 in 1930. The illustrator Alexander Calder came from a long line of sculptors and first took up printmaking after moving to Paris in 1926 where he befriended Marcel Duchamp Fernand Leger Joan Miró and Piet Mondrian. Quarto. Illustrated throughout with line drawings by Alexander Calder on Guarro's Spanish pure rag paper with coloured silk threads. Original paper-covered boards front cover lettered in black edges untrimmed endleaves uncut. With the original glassine dust jacket and the original paper knife loosely inserted. Housed in the original red card chemise and slipcase with printed label to front cover. A few small marks to boards; glassine jacket a little chipped tape repair to rear jacket; slipcase a little toned: a near-fine copy. hardcover
1840Best.-Nr. 173764Canton: Canton Press Office 1840. The first full Chinese translation of Aesop's Fables First edition association copy inscribed by William Jardine one of the three "generous patrons" named in the dedication on the front wrapper "R. Goff Esqr. 105 Piccadilly from the compiler with Mr. Jardine's compliments". Jardine 1784-1843 co-founded the successful trading firm Jardine Matheson & Co. and held significant sway over the course of Anglo-Chinese relations either side of the First Opium War. This Chinese translation was intended as a primer to help the growing number of British students of Chinese working for Jardine Matheson the East India Company and other concerns in Canton. Robert Thom 1807-46 who adopted the pen-name "Sloth" honed his language skills while working for Jardine's and acted as a translator for British forces during the First Opium War 1839-42 and at the 1843 Supplementary Treaty negotiations. He was later British consul at Ningbo. Each page offers three columns of English Chinese characters and romanized Chinese. For each fable Thom dictated the Chinese to his teacher who brushed them in a legible hand. According to the introduction the volume was the first time Chinese wooden blocks and European metal type were used side-by-side during printing. Thom's translation was later reprinted in various modified editions by the Anglo-Chinese College the Shanghai Free Hospital and the Wenyutang Chinese Printing and Publishing Company. This edition is well represented institutionally but is uncommon in commerce - we have traced only five appearances at auction in the past six decades. Of these only one retained both of the original wrappers as here. Provenance: Robert Goff 1801-1866 was an antiquarian who travelled widely in the Middle East and Asia presenting a collection of Egyptian antiquities to the British Museum in 1847. This copy was later in the Bibliotheca Lindesiana one of the most impressive private collections of the 19th century its bookplate is on the front pastedown. Alexander Lindsay 1812-80 later 25th Earl of Crawford and 8th Earl of Balcarres met Goff while the latter was travelling and at the sale of Goff's art collection in 1866 Quaritch acquired a collection of Chinese drawings and sold these to Lindsay. This copy entered the Lindsay library either via Quaritch or via the dispersal of the Goff library in the 1890s. It is recorded in the 1910 Bibliotheca Lindesiana catalogue. Quarto 295 x 202 mm. With engraving of Chinese character styles furnished by Elijah Coleman Bridgman the compiler of the Canton Chrestomathy. Late 19th-century brown hard-grain half morocco by Henry Wood raised bands ruled in gilt spine lettered in gilt Papier Tourniquet-pattern sides marbled endpapers with design of Spanish moiré on Turkish with overprinted gold vein pattern top edge gilt original yellow printed wrappers bound in. Binding a little worn corners and extremities recoloured light foxing neat tissue repairs at foot of wrappers and title page loss at lower corner of p. 103 a few tide marks to fore edges: a very good copy. Bibliotheca Lindesiana 1910 80 this copy; Cordier 1683; Lust 1065. hardcover
1744Best.-Nr. 1163571744. FOSSATI Giorgio. Raccolta di Varie Favole delineate ed incise in Rame. Six volumes in two. 16 44; 16 48; 8 76; 8 59; 8 59; 8 36 pp. Title-pages in vol. I with engraved ornamental borders printed in red. Illustrated with 3 engraved headpieces and 216 engraved plates printed in red green blue brown and black. 4to. 295 x 205 mm bound in full Venetian contemporary vellum boards. Venice: Carlo Pecora 1744. First Edition of one of the most sought-after Venetian eighteenth-century colour-printed works. The two hundred plus engravings are printed in the following colour inks: blue olive green sepia madder rose chocolate brown yellow brown Payne's grey reddish brown cadmium orange black and blue-grey. This scarce Venetian edition of classical fables with coloured engravings was designed and executed by the architect Giorgio Fossati. Birds beasts plants and humans are placed in Venetian pastoral or architectural settings. The latter are especially noteworthy and reveal the practiced hand and eye of their author; in plate XXXIII "The Gentleman and the Ape" the grand illusionistic stage setting recalls the work of the Bibiena. The Swiss-born Giorgio Fossati 1705-1785 designer of the facade of the Scuola and church of San Rocco in Venice was an important promulgator of architectural history theory and practice through his many sumptuous publications including new editions of Vignola Palladio and Félibien. Fossati specialized in books with illustrations printed in colour. The colour-technique he employed involved no overprinting or mixing just pure colour printed on heavy white Italian paper giving his books an extravagant Venetian character. Copies of the Favole that were bound in six volumes sometimes manifest additional engraved title-pages preceding each volume of text; the present copy like that of the Spencer Collection NYPL has the two engraved title-pages preceding vol. I. In our copy the allegorical explications of the fables in the first two volumes 8 8 pp. are bound before their respective texts. Fine copies in contemporary Venetian bindings are very rare on the market. This is a fresh fine and attractive copy in its contemporary Venetian binding. PROVENANCE: With later bookplate bearing a crossed monogram "L.L." surrounded in each corner by the emblem of medicine a serpent entwining the staff of Asclepius. Cohen-Ricci 410. Lewine 192. Sander 727. Morazzoni 232. Lanckoronska 108. Rosenwald 1570. Pedrocco The Glory of Venice Art in the Eighteenth Century 1994 ch. VIII p. 290 & fig. 190. hardcover books
1687Best.-Nr. 47459London.: H. Hills jun. for Francis Barlow. 1687. Full contemporary midnight blue morocco by the 'Barlow's Aesop Binder' boards ruled in gilt to surround gilt tooled decorative panels with foliate decorative corner pieces banded spine with elaborate decorative tooling and title 'BARLOWs AESOP' gilt turn ins and board edges with gilt roll tool decoration marbled endpapers a.e.g. black morocco-backed velvet-lined buckram box. Folio. 372 x 242 mm. Engraved title printed title engraving with the Devonshire arms dedication leaf 'to the Right Honourable William of Devonshire' leaf 'to the Reader' engraved frontispiece and 31 engraved plates illustrating the 'Life of Aesop' and 110 half-page vignette engravings to the 'Fables'. A superlative large paper copy in a contemporary English binding by the Barlow's Aesop Binder of Barlow's undoubted masterpiece of English book illustration.This copy - printed on excellent paper - is in a beautiful contemporary binding the binding in a beautiful state of preservation by the ‘Barlow’s Aesop Binder’. Few bindings by the 'Barlow’s Aesop Binder' are known and the present copy identifiable by the lettering to the spine and the comparable decorative tooling is one of only a handful. Active in the 1680s and 1690s the bindery worked certainly for William and Mary although the identified copies of Barlow’s masterpiece from the bindery include too the Devonshire dedication copy from Chatsworth the Cracherode copy both these now at the British Library Pepys’ copy at Magdalene Cambridge the present copy and one other in a private collection in the US.This second edition of Francis Barlow's masterpiece adds 31 plates 32 including the frontispiece to illustrate the life of Aesop including the often mutilated 'obscene' plate here untouched and includes verse by Aphra Behn 1640 - 1689 commissioned especially for each of the 'Fables'. The unsigned plates are engraved by Barlow and the remainder by Thomas Dudley a student of Wenceslaus Hollar. Barlow himself drew and engraved all of the illustrations for the 'Fables' themselves.'The Ingenious Mrs. A. Behn has been so obliging as to perform the English Poetry which in short comprehends the Sense of the Fable and Moral: Whereof to say much were needless since it may sufficiently recommend it self to all Persons of Understanding.' Francis Barlow.'Francis Barlow was the first native English book illustrator - indeed the leading interpretative illustrator in England before 1800 . Otto Benesch of the Albertina Museum Vienna has called him 'one of the greatest illustrators of all time'.' Edward Hodnett.Complete copies of Barlow's work in good condition are scarce the present copy however a large paper example in its original binding by theh Barlow’s Aesop Binder printed on a different thick paper stock and entirely unsophisticated is of the utmost rarity. This is borne out if it is necessary to provide evidence by the fact that this copy featured in two sophisticated collections of illustrated books of the last 50 years: firstly that of Arthur and Charlotte Vershbow secondly that of Robert S. Pirie; the latter collector rarely if ever settled for second best and would certainly have bought another copy if he had found one. That he had to wait for the present copy is telling.Wing 703; see ‘English Restoration Bindings’ by Howard Nixon pg. 40 nos. 98 / 99; see 'Francis Barlow' by Edward Hodnett 1978. H. Hills jun. for Francis Barlow. hardcover
1666Best.-Nr. 48718London.: Printed by William Godbid for Francis Barlow and are to be sold by Ann Seile at the Black-Boy against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet and Edward Powell at the Swan in Little Britain. 1666. Full contemporary calf boards ruled in blind later spine with red morocco label with gilt title and blind rules in seven compartments marbled edges. Folio. 356 x 242 mm. Printed title within double rules engraved title by Barlow with central title within elaborate cartouche and surrounded by an eagle leopard boar fox wolf and lion leaf with large decorative woodcut inhabited ten-line initial and Barlow's dedication to Sir Francis Pruijan or Prujean leaf with Barlow's 'To the Reader' leaf with engraved frontispiece of Aesop with animals and additional engraving with text beneath 20 leaves with 'A Brief Prospect of the Life of Aesop' 16 leaves with 'La Vie d'Esope' 9 leaves with 'Aesopi Philosophice Fabulantis Vita' and Aesop's 110 fables illustrated with 110 engravings final leaves with 'La Table' and 'The Table' decorative woodcut initials and tail-pieces throughout; sheet size: 350 x 228 mm. A very rare large paper copy of the scarce first edition of Francis Barlow's undoubted masterpiece of English book illustration.By the time of the Restoration Francis Barlow had achieved a measure of success with his suites of prints of animals - engraved by the best such as Hollar Griffier and Place - and his decoration of houses and by the mid-1660s had contributed to the Aesop of Ogilby and Hollar. It is not entirely clear why he would wish to issue another edition of the Fables Hofer suggests a competitive nature and a different projected audience but by 1665 he had engraved a superb title it bears that date and by the time of publication in 1666 the date to the letterpress title had engraved a frontispiece of Aesop surrounded by animals and 110 half-page vignettes after his own drawings to illustrate the Fables. Each of the Fable engravings is accompanied by lines of verse by Thomas Philipott; the translations of Aesop's life into French and Latin was by Robert Codrington. Whatever Barlow's motivation the result is one of the most extensive and beautiful English illustrated books of the seventeenth century and one of the scarcest the scarcity often attributed to the loss of the sheets in the Great Fire of London. Large paper copies of this first edition are identifiable see ESTC through various issue points all present here but also as per Philip Hofer the transposition of some of Barlow's engravings. In the present copy the engraving for 'Fab. XLVIII' 'The Ant and Fly' is in fact that for 'Fab. XLXIX' 'The Ant and Grasshopper'. Hofer indicates too that the engravings for 'Fab. LXX' 'The Tortoise and Hare' and 'Fab. LXXI' The Young Man and His Cat' are also transposed however in the present copy they are not the margins headlines etc. conform to the remaining large paper leaves although 'The Young Man and His Cat' features the erroneous title 'The Nurse and Her Child' 'Fab. LXIX' albeit with the correct page number. Large paper copies also feature 'FINIS' beneath the signature Ppp at the foot of the leaf with the final engraving for 'FAB. CX' 'The Tortoise & Eagle'; in addition the spacing of the text in the large paper copy also suggests that the text on this leaf was reset.A second edition was published in 1687 with additional plates to illustrate the life of Aesop and with Philipott's verse replaced with new verse by Aphra Behn. A third edition was issued in 1703 and a posthumous French edition appeared in 1714 published in Amsterdam; Philip Hofer suggests that the third edition was really made up of unused sheets from the two earlier editions but with a new title and that the edition in French - it makes use of some of Barlow's plates - is not a Barlow edition.'This seventeenth-century polyglot English-French-Latin Aesop is handsomely illustrated with engravings after designs by Francis Barlow 1626 - 1702 an English painter renowned for his pictures of country life and field sports. He was perhaps the finest English draughtsman of animal scenes in the seventeenth century. Barlow who published the book at his own expense explains in his preface that he intends the work to contribute to the education of young people. This is the first edition; the relatively few copies known are all survivors of the Great Fire of London which swept over the printer's premises in 1666.' Early Children's Books and Their Illustration.'No artist has responded with more sensitivity and less sentimentality to the gentle grace of deer . The least of creatures the frog the hare the snake and the swallow and the least favoured of them the ass the boar and the wolf -- he draws them all with an intimacy charm and inviolable integrity never surpassed in an English book . '. Edward Hodnett.'Francis Barlow was the first native English book illustrator - indeed the leading interpretative illustrator in England before 1800 . Otto Benesch of the Albertina Museum Vienna has called him 'one of the greatest illustrators of all time'.' Edward Hodnett.This large paper issue of the 1666 Aesop is very scarce: while ESTC lists 17 copies for the small paper issue see ESTC R21542 it notes only two of the large: the copy at the Huntington and that at the Morgan Library and Museum New York; Harvard also holds a copy.ESTC R477463; see 'Francis Barlow' by Edward Hodnett 1978; see #9 in the Morgan Library and Museum's 'Early Children's Books and Their Illustration' 1975; see Philip Hofer's 'Francis Barlow's Aesop' printetd in the Harvard Library Bulletin Autumn 1948. Printed by William Godbid for Francis Barlow, and are to be sold by Ann Seile at the Black-Boy against St. Dunstan's Church in F hardcover
1665Best.-Nr. H-236AESOP c.620-564 BCE and Francis BARLOW c.1626-1702 artist. Aesop's Fables with his Life: in English French and Latin. Translated by Thomas Philipott and Robert Codrington. London: Printed by William Godbid for Francis Barlow 1665. Folio 370 x 240mm. Pre-fire First edition and large paper issue of Barlow's masterpiece on Aesop's Fables. The first edition of 1665-1666 is a rare survivor as nearly all copies were destroyed in the 1666 London fire. According to the Yale Center for British Art who has a similar copy the first edition was largely destroyed in the London fire this copy has the Rob. Codrington trans. entry on the title page consistent with the pre-fire first edition. A second edition was published in 1687 with additional plates to illustrate the life of Aesop and with Philipott's verse replaced with new verse by Aphra Behn. A third edition was issued in 1703 and a posthumous French edition appeared in 1714 published in Amsterdam. The Fables themselves are in English verse by Mrs Behn and French and Latin prose each followed by a moral. Illustrated throughout with detailed images of animals and scenes this edition stands as a landmark book in the history of printing definitely a rare feat of the 17th century. Hodnett describes Barlow's anatomically-skilled drawings as 'the special glory of the Aesop illustrations' and affirms 'No artist has responded with more sensitivity and less sentimentality to the gentle grace of deer … The least of creatures the frog the hare the snake and the swallow and the least favored of them the ass the boar and the wolf — he draws them all with an intimacy charm and inviolable integrity never surpassed in an English book' Edward Hodnett Francis Barlow: First Master of English Book Illustration London 1978 pp.182 185. The fables we now associate with the legendary ancient author Aesop have a complicated textual transmission history but they have been an important part of the educational tradition of the Greco-Roman world and its successors for thousands of years—not only teaching moral lessons but playing a role in language instruction through their many translations. Printed by William Godbid for Francis Barlow hardcover
1501Best.-Nr. 1859Basel: Jacob Wolff of Pforzheim 1501. First edition thus. An early illustrated edition of Aesop's Fables augmented and edited by Sebastian Brant and the first edition to include his additional 140 sections. Two parts in one volume folio leaves measuring 297 x 208 mm. Collates complete retaining one of the two blank leaves M6 lacking. Collation identical to the Fairfax-Murray copy: a-b8 c6-o8 alternately p-s6 s6 blank and original; A-B8 C-D6 E8-K6 alternately L4 M5 M6 final blank lacking. With the famous woodcut portrait of Aesop on the verso of a1 and a smaller woodcut portrait of Brant on the verso of A1 in part two. A total of 335 woodcuts divided into 194 in part one and 141 in part two inclusive of the portraits. Text in Latin. Full black straight-grain morocco. Boards ruled in gilt with gilt dentelles. Spine stamped and lettered in gilt. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. Generous margins. Previous owner's small bookplate on front pastedown. This copy has been very carefully restored and generally presents quite well. Certain passages were deemed obscene shortly after publication and as a consequence most known copies have a few sections defaced. This copy is no different with a number of passages and illustrations crossed out and/or marked "no legas" "do not read". A number of leaves have had small marginal tears or wormholes repaired occasionally affecting a letter or a word. One leaf C4 with a small hole affecting the woodcut on the recto and two or three words on the verso. A few leaves have been remargined including the title page to part 2 leaf A1. In two places leaves are bound out of order. The flaws notwithstanding a lovely book. The plan of this edition was conceived by Sebastian Brant. The first part of the book is based on Johann Zainer's first illustrated edition of 1476-77 translated into Latin by Heinrich Steinhöwel. Brant expands the work polishes the language and includes his commentaries to these fables. The second part is an entirely new work by Brant of 140 fables riddles accounts of miracles and other wonders of nature. These 140 new chapters follow the same structure as the first section with a woodcut followed by verse and then prose "some of a very remarkable character" according to Hugh W. Davies Fairfax Murray. These compositions are taken from the works of Stace Juvenal Virgil Ovid Lucien. The first story taken from Hesiod is said to be the oldest known fable. "The numerous woodcuts in this volume fall into two distinct categories. The woodcuts in the first part with a few exceptions are rather simplistic and naive in execution and are based in reverse on the woodcuts from Zainer's successful Ulm edition of c.1476 incidentally the first illustrated edition of Aesop; the actual blocks were first used in Wolff's edition of not after 1489 Goff A115. The woodcuts of the second part are more sophisticated with the use of hatching and perspective to enliven the images and they were cut specifically for this edition; is it thought they were produced by the workshop of Johann Grüninger in Strassburg" Sotheby's. According to Hugh W. Davies "The remainder of the cuts are by a new artist the style entirely differing from the older blocks. These are heavily shaded by thin close parallel lines amalgamating into a solid mass in the deepest shadows. The perspective as a rule is fair: the faces are well rounded the noses being broad at the bridge but well-shaped. The cuts have the appearance of metal but they nevertheless are probably on wood." In the past 30 years there have been five other auction results for this book one copy selling twice. The average price achieved in those five sales including the buyer's premium is just under $119000. If we average just the two copies sold in the last ten years that average jumps to over $167000. Of those five results the lowest sale price from 2002 made over $81000. And finally to complete the analysis a particularly fine copy was offered by the trade in 2014 for 200000 pounds roughly $329000. So while our copy has its defects and imperfections as do almost all other copies it is priced competitively for such a lovely and important work. Fairfax Murray 20. Goed. I 390 24. Adams A291. Jacob Wolff of Pforzheim unknown books
