Having a doubt respecting the cuts of this rare book, I took my copy to Miss Bewick (Jan. 1867), and inquired of her if they were engraved by her father. She kindly gave me the following authentic information:—“The cuts were engraved by Thomas Bewick in the first year of his apprenticeship (1767-68), excepting the cut of a ship at sea, p. 167. This was engraved by David Martin, Bewick’s fellow-apprentice, Bewick at this time disliking to represent ‘water.’” This, then, sets all doubt at rest respecting the cuts in an “Æsop’s Fables,” “Gay’s Fables,” &c., &c., published by Saint about this date, in which the same and similar cuts were used. The following, used in “Gay,” is evidently Bewick’s first attempt at the subject for which he afterwards gained a premium.
“Moral Instructions,” 1772, and “Select Fables,” 1776.
“Select Fables,” Æsop, &c. (Saint, 1776).
The next is the first edition of the present volume, “Select Fables” (T. Saint, Newcastle, 1776). In three Parts. Part I. After the Manner of Dodsley’s. Part II. Fables with Reflections. Part III. Fables in Verse. To which are prefixed the Life of Æsop; and An Essay upon Fable—(same Verse and Vignette, as in the 2d Edition, of 1784). Containing one hundred and fourteen cuts, including those mentioned in the “Moral Instructions,” described above, and fourteen larger and much superior cuts, with borders, afterwards used with others in “Gay’s Fables,” printed by T. Saint, in 1779. The same vignette appears on the title as in the Second Edition of this Book in 1784. It also has a copperplate frontispiece, “R. Beilby delint. et sculpt.” 12mo, 211 pages, 2 pages of Index, &c. (notice the variations in the title, &c., to the 1784 edition). The only copy of this edition (1776) I ever had, or saw, is now in the unique collection of E. B. Jupp, Esq., who has kindly lent the block for the Frontispiece to the present Edition. It was engraved for “The Beauties of Æsop” (Kendal, circa 1800-22), by Thomas Bewick, and is somewhat like Beilby’s copperplate frontispiece to 1776 Edition, but infinitely improved. It contains about seventy delineations of animal and bird life, &c. (see the tailpiece at page 122 of present edition, extremely like in arrangement, execution, &c.), while the portrait of Æsop is certainly the most reasonable I have yet seen in examining the numerous editions which have passed through my hands.
About this time, 1773 to 1776, many works issued from Saint’s press—“Robinson Crusoe,” “Watt’s Songs,” Oliver Goldsmith’s “Tommy Trip” (see my reprint, of 1867), “Goody Two Shoes,” “Golden Toy or Fairing,” “Tom Telescope’s Newtonian Philosophy,” “Tommy Tagg’s Poems,” and numerous others. Examples of cuts follow.
