[Rarebooks] fa: GEORGE CRUIKSHANK - THE HUMOURIST 1819-1820 - 4 vols. w/ 40 Colored Plates

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now along with other illustrated works, auctions ending Sunday, March 22. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/k89yxgw

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.



[George Cruikshank, illustrator:] The Humourist: A Collection of Entertaining Tales, Anecdotes, Repartees, Witty Sayings, Epigrams, Bon Mots, Jeu d'esprits, &c. London: Printed and Published by J. Robins and Co., Albion Press, 1819-1820. Four volumes, 12mo (15.5 x 9.5 cm), in full period tree calf, spines tooled in gilt, custom red cloth chemise and slipcase with morocco spine label; 226, [2] pp.; 230, [2] pp.; 222, [2] pp.; 226, [2] pp.; with the terminal leaves of publisher's adverts and lists of plates; forty hand-colored plates, including the extra vignette title-pages (complete). FIRST EDITIONS: as  per Cohn's first issue, the printed title-page of the first volume bears the words "Vol. I," but no year (the other title-pages all have the year as well as the volume number); additionally, p. 44 of vol. I begins with the tale "Dr. Johnson," again as per the first issue. Cohn 419; Patten p. 190; Hardie p. 197.

An externally handsome, internally superb example of this early, uncommon and highly desirable Cruikshank title, "his first remarkable separate work," as his biographer Blanchard Jerrold describes it. Each volume with ten delightful color illustrations etched by the inimitable Cruikshank as he was just hitting his stride. Bindings with some bumping and wear to the extremities; several joints a little tender; professional repair to one joint and reinforcement to others. The contents are fine or very nearly so: occasional light offsetting from the plates, a few insignificant spots here and there, otherwise clean and fresh, firmly bound, the plates bright.

"Perhaps the most important, certainly one of the rarest, of the books with coloured plates by Cruikshank is The Humourist… This was issued in numbers from 1st January 1819, and formed four volumes when complete in 1820. The forty hand-coloured etchings show Cruikshank at his best, and are full of variety, as the contents of any one volume will show. Pick up volume ii., for instance, and note the list of contents:—The Bashful Man; An Awkward Mistake; The Whiskers; The Witty Porter in the Stocks;… Daniel Lambert and the Dancing Bears; The Biter Bitten; Monsieur Tonson. If you know Cruikshank without knowing this book, you could imagine the wit and relish with which he treats these subjects…" (Martin Hardie: English Coloured Books).