"ONE OF THE BEST 'VICARS' WE KNOW": THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD, DELIGHTFULLY ILLUSTRATED BY THOMSON, IN A BEAUTIFUL KELLIEGRAM MOROCCO-GILT BINDING FEATURING AN ELABORATE MULTI-COLOR MOROCCO COVER INLAY OF THE VICAR AND HIS WIFE

(THOMSON, Hugh, illustrator) GOLDSMITH, Oliver. The Vicar of Wakefield. London and New York: Macmillan, 1890. Octavo, contemporary full brown morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spine and covers, multi-color inlaid morocco cover illustration of the Vicar, raised bands, all edges gilt; original gilt-decorated pictorial cloth front cover and spine bound in at rear. $2000.

Later edition of Goldsmith's sentimental and subtly satirical novel—the first to be illustrated with numerous wood-engraved in-text vignettes, head- and tailpieces by Hugh Thomson—beautifully bound in a morocco-gilt Kelliegram binding with a detailed multi-color morocco cover inlay of the Vicar.

The Vicar of Wakefield has long charmed readers "in part due to the imaginative glow that Goldsmith so effortlessly casts over the action… and to his flexible and easy style" (Baugh et al., 1061). "Among the genteel book illustrators, Hugh Thomson takes first place… His figure drawing is characterized by a careful blending of genteel and humorous elements well suited to the authors he found most sympathetic" (Harthan, 238). Thomson's illustrated Vicar was dubbed "one of the best 'Vicars' we know" (Saturday Review). Dobson's valuable preface offers a detailed history of illustrated Vicars. First issue of this first edition to appear with Thomson's illustrations, with the suppressed illustration on page 95 of girl sitting on a man's back, later suppressed. First published 1766. Bookplate.

A few leaves with very faint dampstain along upper edge, strictly marginal. Expert repairs to joints. A beautiful volume.