Aesop

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 USD

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Description

Aesop'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 at the Black-Boy Against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-Street, Tho. Fox in Westminster-Hall, and Henry Faithorne at the Rose in St Paul's Church-Yard, 1687
ink, paper

Folio (14 1/4 x 9 in.; 363 x 228 mm), possibly a large-paper copy. Engraved frontispiece, engraved additional title (lettering partially re-engraved: see Johnson's Barlow No. 3), letterpress title within double-ruled border, engraved arms of the dedicatee, William Cavendish, Earl of Devonshire, engraved portrait of Aesop, 31 engraved plates illustrating the life of Aesop, 110 engraved vignettes with verses engraved on the plates, by Thomas Dudley and others. Contemporary English black morocco paneled gilt, the spine gilt in eight compartments (one reserved for lettering), floral gilt roll on board edges, marbled endpapers, edges gilt; a few small, old scrapes and light rubbing to boards.

Provenance

Lionel Phillips (bookplate by W. P. Barrett dated 1908 on front pastedown) — Leonard Schlosser — Arthur and Charlotte Vershbow (acquired from Schlosser, 1986; library ticket; sale, Christie's New York, 20 June 2013, lot 357). acquisition: Purchased at foregoing sale through Bernard Quaritch

Literature

Wing A703; ESTC R22991

Catalogue Note

Second edition, with English text by Aphra Behn replacing that of Thomas Philpott (1666) in a handsome contemporary English binding. The plates illustrating Aesop's life appear here for the first time, including the sometimes suppressed, so-called "indecent" plate 17.