“A NEW DEPARTURE IN BOOK ILLUSTRATION”

(STOTHARD, Thomas) BRAY, Anna Eliza. The Life of Thomas Stothard, R.A., with Personal Reminiscences. London: John Murray, 1851. Square octavo, early 20th-century full crushed green morocco, raised bands, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt. $800.

First edition of Bray’s illustrated biography of her artist father-in-law, richly extra-illustrated with the addition of 91 engraved plates, handsomely bound by Bradstreet’s.

Stothard "owes his continuing reputation largely to his illustrations" (Ray), and many have been inserted into this extra-illustrated copy. "Among the prose works Stothard illustrated were novels by Fielding, Smollett, Richardson and Sterne, Don Quixote, Gil Blas, Robinson Crusoe, the Arabian Nights… and Gulliver's Travels. These designs made a new departure in book illustration by their variety of invention, their literary sympathy, their spirit and their grace" (DNB). With original front wrapper and 16-page illustrated catalogue at rear. Ray, The Illustrator and the Book in England, 19.

Scattered light foxing to plates and text. Spine toned to brown, edges of boards lightly toned. A near-fine copy, abundantly extra-illustrated and handsomely bound.