Sewell, Anna

12mo (166 x 102mm.), FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR'S MOTHER MARY ON FRONT ENDPAPER ("The Rev^d I Drake | from his sincere friend | Mary Sewell"), wood-engraved frontispiece, 8pp. advertisements, original pictorial green silk-grain cloth, upper cover with elaborate floral and rustic frame enclosing title in specially cut caps graded to swell at the beginning and ends of the words, horse's head beneath looking to the right, spine similarly decorated (a variant of Carter's B binding), brown coated endpapers, green cloth folding box, joints and spine expertly repaired, some occasional slight spotting to text and preliminaries

Wolff 6250; Carter, More Binding Variants p.37

A FINE FAMILY PRESENTATION COPY OF ANNA SEWELL'S CHILDREN'S CLASSIC, IN A VARIANT OF THE RARE "B" BINDING.

The variant binding here appears to be the same as on other early presentation copies of the book sold in these rooms. See for instance another copy inscribed by Mary Sewell (31 October 1997, lot 235), copies inscribed by the author (30 November 1994, lot 328 and 18 November 1999, lot 202), and one by the wife of the publisher (21 November 1996, lot 136). In common with Carter's 'B' binding the horse's head and rustic portions of the frame on the upper cover are in black, and the floral decoration, reins and panels are in gilt. However, the titling on the cover is in black rather than gilt. Carter recalled seeing only one copy of the 'B' binding (this may have been the present copy, since he records it as also a presentation copy from Mary Sewell: see John Carter, More Binding Variants, Constable, 1938, pp.37-38).

Few presentation copies of Black Beauty, Anna Sewell's sole published work, appear on the market. The author herself died shortly after publication. Anna's mother Mary was a Quaker and member of the Anti-Slavery Association, and a children's writer in her own right. Anna and her mother were extremely close and mother helped daughter substantially during the composition of the novel (see previous lot).