A PROVISIONAL CHECKLIST OF THE LIBRARY OF THOMAS BEWICK

PART 2

377. Bewick, T. A General History of Quadrupeds, Royal 8to, Newcastle: S. Hodgson, R. Beilby and T. Bewick, 1790.    (See R26 and R223,U)

(The Pease volume (R26) is one of four copies of the First Edition printed on “thick atlas vellum paper”. In it is a loosely inserted ms quoting a Thomas Bewick letter dated [26 May] 1824 about another such copy he had given to his wife, Isabella. The original letter is now in the Huntington Library (microfilm copy in Newcastle City Library Bewick Collection 545): “I often wished my wife to allow me to give hers away to Bibliomanists to whom I thou't I owed obligations - but she always expressed her unwillingness, & she still has it in her possession”. Later, in 1861, Mrs Bewick's copy was sold for £20 (or £21) by her daughters Jane and Isabella to T. Kerslake, a Bristol bookseller. He sold it for £26. At that time the 1824 letter from Bewick was tipped in, and an autograph note by Thomas Bewick on the title page recorded that only four such copies were printed. It next appeared in the Whitehead (1877) catalogue (R223, item 13), and was sold to Toovey, a London bookseller, for £30-9-0. Another of the four copies, that formerly owned by E.P. Jupp, is now in a private collection in Newcastle.)
Jane Bewick’s record of the sale to Kerslake is: ‘Vellum Quadruped / autograph letter to Pollard. Bequest of Mother to Jane. £21 “Bequest of Isabella Bewick to her Daughter Jane Bewick” written in Title page by Thomas Bewick. I wonder who bought it’, and later, at the end of the list of books sold: ‘Kerslake’s premises at Bristol were burnt / he wrote to me that the Vellum Copy was saved with the letter; and was sold at [long blank] sale London for £26/10/-’ (T&WA 1269/84, pp 103-4).)

378. Bewick, T. A General History of Quadrupeds, 1788 and 1790; set of “upwards of 187 proofs on strong laid paper”, some coloured by the Bewick children.    (?Bj,H253)

(According to the Hugo sale catalogue, a special set of proofs made for Thomas Bewick's children to colour. Sold to Quaritch for £2-8-0 in the sale (August 1877). It may be the “Color'd Quadrupeds” listed with Jane's books in 1806.)

379. Bewick, T. A bound selection of 27 proof wood engravings from A General History of Quadrupeds, hand coloured by Thomas Bewick and inscribed by him “A Gift to R.E. Bewick, Forth NEWCASTLE 1^st Jan.^y 1800”.   (Private collection)

(Currently in a private collection in Newcastle. “No. 246” written on a corner of the front flyleaf cannot be firmly identified as (but may be) a “Bewick Library number”.

379a. Bewick, T. A selection of 28 proof wood engravings from A General History of Quadrupeds, hand coloured by Thomas Bewick and inscribed by him “A Gift to Jane Bewick NEWCASTLE 1^st Jan.^y 1800”.             (L)

In card covers with marbled paper externally. With the bookplate of John Bewick and a later inscription by Jane Bewick ‘Coloured by Thomas Bewick, to please his Children'. Hancock Museum accession number NEWHM:1997.H54.

The 28 engravings in this copy are the Racehorse, Hunter, Black Horse, Common Carthorse, Ass, Zebra, Lancashire Ox, Zebu, Ibex, Chamois-goat, Springer, Elk-antelope, Hart-beest, Cameleopard, Rein-deer, Stag or Red-deer, Axis or Ganges Stag, Fallow-deer, Shepherd's dog, Cur dog, Greenland dog, Bull-dog, Mastiff, Greyhound, Terrier, Large Rough Water-dog, Small Water-spaniel and Mouse.

(See number 382, below, for Elizabeth Bewick's equivalent copy. Presumably Isabella Bewick may have been given a similar copy at the same time, but hers has not been identified. Careful comparison, in May 2004, of 379a with 379 and 382 shows them to be identical in the form of the inscriptions, the choice of animals, the palette of colours used and, in the case of 379 and 379a, the order of the animals and the pattern of the marbled-paper covers. 379a differs in having 28 animals while the others have 27 (the zebu being the extra one). In 382 the animals are arranged in a different order, starting with the dogs. In a few images there are ink or pencil additions to the backgrounds, usually just at the edges (eg in the images of the bulldog and red deer) but in 379 and 382, but not 379a, for example, a line of distant hills has been drawn in on the images of the elk-antelope. Some trivial differences in colouring are seen in a minority but for the most part the details of the colouring are identical and very skilled. It seems almost certain that Thomas Bewick himself coloured all the images in all three copies.)

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380. Bewick, T. A General History of Quadrupeds, Third Edition, demy 8vo, 1792.            (G49,H258)

(“Thomas Bewick's copy, with several autograph additions and corrections” (G49). Sold (“Cloth, soiled”) at the Hugo sale (1877) to Howell for 11/-.)

381. Bewick, T. A General History of Quadrupeds, Imperial 8vo, 1800.          (P185)

(Inscribed on title page “Presented by T. Bewick to his daughter Jane” in her hand.)

382. Bewick, T. A General History of Quadrupeds, 1800.        (F,R172)

“Colored Quad: Eliz.^th Bewick Col^d by TB. 1800” (F).

In the album of the Charnley and Robinson Collection (Pease 172), on pages 107-121, are ‘Twenty-seven cuts of animals described in J.W. Pease's writing as having been “given by T.B. to his daughter E. [Elizabeth] and coloured by T.B. in 1800.”' (R172).

The inscription by TB in R172 is ‘A Gift to Eliz.^h Bewick NEWCASTLE 1^st Jan^y 1800'. The animals selected are the same as in item 379a (above), omitting the Zebu. The collection has been broken up into individual pages and laid down, usually two to a page, in the album.

[If the item described in F is a copy of the book itself, it is remarkable that no other record has been found of this copy, apparently hand coloured by Thomas Bewick.It seem far more likely that F refers to the item in Pease 172, a selection of proof wood engravings, similar to numbers 379 and 379a above, rather than a complete copy of the 1800 edition. Three pages from Pease 172 are reproduced in colour in Glendinning et al. (2003).

383. Bewick, T. A General History of Quadrupeds, Fifth Edition, Imperial 8vo, 1807.             (C,D4,E,R34)

“[Bewick's] Quadrupeds Imperial. 1807” (C)

“[Bewick's] Quadrupeds” (D)

“Bewick's Quadrupeds (Imp^l Octavo 2 copies” (E).

(R34 has an inscription “The GIFT of Thomas Bewick Engraver NEWCASTLE to his Daughter Isabella, 10 Feby 1816”. The same book was item 631 at the sale of T.W.U. Robinson's collection (Robinson, 1890; R221); it was sold to Barlow for £10-10-0.)

384. Bewick, T. A General History of Quadrupeds, Fifth Edition, Imperial 8to, 1807. (P186)

(Inscribed on the title page “The Gift of Thomas Bewick to his daughter Jane, 10th February, 1816” in his hand. This or the next may have been the other of the “2 copies” recorded in E. Sold at the 1894 Barnes sale, for £15 or £20, to EB Mounsey (Pease 203 - Pease's annotation suggests £15, a news cutting pasted in, states £20.).)

385. Bewick, T. A General History of Quadrupeds, Fifth Edition, Imperial 8to, 1807.             (E,P187,R35)

(This or the last may have been the other of the “2 copies” recorded in E. Bought at the 1894 Barnes sale by Pease for £17-0-0 (P187). Inscribed “The gift of Thomas Bewick, Engraver, Newcastle, to his daughter Elizabeth, 10 Feby. 1816”.)

386. Bewick, T. A General History of Quadrupeds, Seventh Edition, Extra Imperial 8to, 1820.   (R39)

With additional laid down proof impressions of most of the beasts and tail pieces.

(Inscribed in her hand “Isabella Bewick Gateshead June 1821. The proof impressions were given her by her father, Thomas Bewick”.)

387. Bewick, T. A General History of Quadrupeds, Seventh Edition, Extra Imperial 8to, Newcastle: Edward Walker, 1820.        (R40)

(Autograph inscription “Elizabeth Bewick”.)

388. Bewick, T. A General History of Quadrupeds, Eighth Edition, demy 8to, 1824.  (N16)

(With additions and corrections in ms by Thomas Bewick for the intended next edition, including “a minute account of the Wombach”. In the collection of R. Robinson (1887, page 283), sold to him shortly before her death (1883) by Isabella Bewick.)

389. [Bewick, T. A General History of Quadrupeds, Eighth Edition, Royal 8to, 1824. (F)

“Hist^y of Quadrupeds Roy^l perf^t 1824” (F).]

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390. [Bewick, T. A General History of Quadrupeds, Eighth Edition, demy 8to, 1824. ([L])

(The copy of this edition donated to the Nat Hist Soc by Isabella Bewick in August 1881 is now missing from the library.)]

391. Bewick, T. History of British Birds, 2 vols. Royal 8vo. Newcastle: Printed by Hodgson for Beilby and Bewick, 1797, printed by Edw. Walker for T. Bewick, 1804.            (C,D4,E,H232)

“Bewick's British Birds 2 Vols. Royal 8/vo 1797” (C).

“Bewick's British Birds” (D)

“Bewick's Birds 2 Vols. Royal. 1804” (E)

(The copy of Land Birds, 1797, recorded in H232 as Thomas Bewick's copy may have been one of these volumes. It was sold (bound in white vellum, gilt, probably for Hugo) at the Hugo sale to Quaritch for £3-3-0.)

392. Bewick, T. History of British Birds, 1797, proof sheets of nearly the whole of Land Birds, with autograph corrections by Thomas Bewick. (G104,H233,Q19,S182)

According to Hugo (1866, 104), these proofs showed that Bewick's amendments and additions to Ralph Beilby's text were “numerous, and very frequently most important”.

(Inserted was a manuscript memorandum of agreement between R. Beilby, T. Bewick and J Johnson, 1797. Bought by Hugo from William Garret, bookseller of Newcastle, having been “happily preserved by some one in the Printing Office”; and at the Hugo sale by Rimell for £1-2-0, in 1877. Sold at the Pinkney sale in 1895 for £30, to Edwin Pearson, and in 1909 at the JM Marshall sale for £12-10-0, buyer not recorded.)

393. [Bewick, T. Figures of British Land Birds ..., (Newcastle: Hodgson, Beilby, Bewick and Mawman, 1800.           (F)

“Land Birds without Letter press 1800” (F).]

394. Bewick, T. British Birds and Supplements, 3 vols. Imperial 8vo. 1797, 1804, [?1821].            (J22)

(Each volume inscribed in Thomas Bewick's hand “The bequest of Isabella Bewick to her daughter Isabella Bewick”. Evidently Jupp obtained this personal copy from Miss Isabella Bewick. It was sold at the Jupp sale to Robinson for £35-10-0 in 1878. The nature of the “Supplements” is not clear. The two Supplements to the Land Birds and Water Birds, bound in one volume, were not published until 1821. Possibly Isabella's copy included this volume, or possibly a volume of additional material added to late impressions of the 1797 and 1804 editions was specially bound for her. The dates given in the Jupp catalogue were only 1797 and 1804.)

395. [Bewick, T. History of British Birds, 2 vols. 1797, 1804.  (J17)

(Jane Bewick's copy, with some woodcuts coloured by her. It was sold at the Jupp sale to Swinburne for £2-2-0 in 1878.)]

396. Bewick, T. History of British Birds, 1797 and 1804; proof cuts of the first editions.             (H261)

(Stated in H261 to be Thomas Bewick's own copy. Sold at Hugo sale, 1877, to Joly, for £10-0-0. This may be the copy now in the Pease Collection, R102 (see 411 below), with the revised date of ?1805.)

397. Bewick, T. History of British Birds, Vol. 1 Land Birds, Royal 8vo, 1797.  (G4420,H230)

(With MS notes by Thomas Bewick and Richard R. Wingate. Both Hugo sources record this as Thomas Bewick's office copy, given by him to Richard Wingate [d. 1859] who coloured several of the birds. Bought from E. Pearson by Hugo for £5 in Feb 1868. At the Hugo sale (1877) it was sold to Walford for 14/-.)

398. Bewick, T. History of British Birds, Vol. 2 Water Birds, Royal 8vo, printed by Edw. Walker for T. Bewick, 1804. Vellum.   (G100)

(The second volume of Hugo's copy of British Birds of 1797 and 1804 (Hugo 1866, 100) was “Bewick's own copy, and contains various additions and corrections in his handwriting”. This copy has not been identified in the Hugo Sale catalogue of 1877 (H).

399. Bewick, T. History of British Birds, Vol. 2 Water Birds, proofs [1804].    (S211)

(“Proofs (printed on one side of the paper) of T. Bewick's Water Birds, one of six copies only, from the Hugo collection, original boards uncut, Presented by Thos. Bewick to Ralph Beilby his old master, and partner in business - Extract from note on flyleaf” (S211). Sold at the Marshall sale for 36/-, buyer not recorded.)

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400. [Bewick, T. History of British Birds, two vols in one. 1797, 1804.           (F)

“Hist^y  of Birds demy 1797, 1804 - 2 Vol in one” (F).

[This book may have been specially bound thus for the family, there is no such edition in Roscoe (1953) who gives 1809 (Roscoe 20) as the first one-volume edition.]

401. Bewick, T. History of British Birds, 2nd Edition, 2 vols. royal 8vo, Newcastle: Edward Walker, 1805. Red morocco, gilt.        (S190)

(Inscribed “The gift of Thomas Bewick to his Daughter Isabella Bewick, 1st January, 1814” on the title pages. MS note inside cover of vol.1 “Copy of 'Birds' - my sister's long cherished edition, 1805, which is now ready to send you ... I am Dear Sir, yours very truly, Jane Bewick” (recipient not named). Sold at the Marshall sale for £8-5-0, buyer not recorded.)

402. Bewick, T. History of British Birds, 2nd Edition, 2 vols. royal 8vo, Newcastle: Edward Walker, 1805. (P189,R81)

(Inscribed “The gift of Thomas Bewick to his daughter Elizabeth, 1st. of January 1815” in Bewick's hand on the title page of vol.1. Bought at the Barnes sale by Pease for £12-16-0. No “Bewick Library number". The other sisters may also have been given copies of this edition. A memo written by Jane in April 1870 records “Isabella sold her royal Birds red morocco 1805 to Mr. Ford of Enfield for £10:10:0” (City Library microfilm Bewick Coll. 545; from the original in the Huntington Library, San Marino, California).)

403. [Bewick, T. History of British Birds, 4 th and 3rd Editions, 2 vols. dmy 8vo, Newcastle: Edward Walker, 1809.  (F ,?M182,Z )

“Bewick's Birds demy soiled 1809” (F).]

“... Boards. Fine impressions of the cuts but an indifferent copy of the work. 1809” (M).

A copy of the 1809 edition of the work offered for sale at McNaughtan’s Bookshop, Edinburgh, in June 2005 is probably identical with the one noted by Jane Bewick in 1865 (F) and sold in 1884 (M). It is soiled internally with ink smears and fingermarks on many pages, but finely bound (presumably after 1884) with inscriptions on the flyleaves of both volumes: ‘William Chipchase Henderson, Bought at “The Bewick Sale” January 1884’ and in a different hand (perhaps Robinson’s) in volume 1 ‘The note on p. 25 [ie xxv] of the Introduction is in the handwriting of Thos. Bewick, the Author 14 th June 1884 Robert Robertson’. In the Land Birds volume, five notes definitely in Thomas Bewick’s hand are manuscript drafts in ink or pencil of changes, some of them made in the “1814-16” edition of Land Birds (Roscoe 21) and others in the 1816 edition. It seems that neither Jane nor the 1884 auctioneer noticed these annotations by Bewick; and it is curious that Robinson himself seems to have noticed only one of them. There are also many notes in both volumes concerned with pagination and signatures, in the case of Land Birds relating variously to one or the other of the two subsequent editions, which may be Bewick’s or an assistant’s. Robinson bought the book at the sale for £2-4-0 (M), possibly on Henderson’s behalf, and probably recorded the one annotation before selling the book on. Henderson perhaps commissioned the fine binding through Robinson (this would account for the latter’s note on the new flyleaf). Although this copy contains Bewick’s notes of many of the revisions of the text that appeared in the 1814-16 edition of Land Birds and in the 1816 editions of both volumes (see Roscoe), it does not include them all; in particular the new material on the Peregrine Falcon and the ‘second Pied Flycatcher’ is not present.

404. Bewick, T. History of British Birds, 4th Edition, 2 vols. dmy 8vo, Newcastle: Edward Walker, 1816.  (J32,R86)

(Contains the corrections in Bewick's hand, made for the 1821 edition. Bewick inscribed the copy “T. Bewick to William Procter, 29 Aug^t, 1823” ^‡ on the title page of vol.II. Sold in a lot with a copy of the 1820 Quadrupeds at the Jupp sale in 1878, to Rutland, for £5-10-0.)

^‡ William Proctor (sic) is identified by Anderton and Gibson (1904) as the curator of University of Durham Museum.

405. Bewick, T. History of British Birds, 4th Edition, 2 vols. dmy 8vo, Newcastle: Edward Walker, 1816; with Supplement (1821) and ? Addenda (1821 or later) or Additamenta (1826).            (F)

“Birds demy 2 vol. with Sup^t & the Addita 1816” (F).

406. [Bewick, T. History of British Birds, Woodcuts without letterpress, 4to, Newcastle: 1817.   (P167)

(Autograph of Robert Elliot Bewick on title page. Sold for £10 at Barnes sale, buyer not recorded.)]

407. Bewick, T. History of British Birds, 2 vols. 8vo, 1821; boards, uncut. Bound with Supplement of 1821.   (M183)

(Interleaved copy with Thomas Bewick's pencilled explanations of a large number of the tail-pieces, overwritten in ink by Jane Bewick. Bought by EB Mounsey for £105, in 1884. Present whereabouts unknown. Another source of Jane Bewick's comments on the vignette's, from a notebook of hers in Iain Bain's possession, were reproduced by him in his Vignettes (1979).)

408. Bewick, T. History of British Birds, 2 vols. 8vo, 1826.     (L)

(With ms. annotations by Thomas Bewick and a note by Jane Bewick. Loosely inserted is an extra copy of the Contents, inscribed in the hand of R.E.Bewick “July 19 1830 Began to Print 7th Edition of Birds”. Some of the numerous pencilled annotations in Thomas Bewick's hand, are overwritten in ink (see Robinson 1887, p. xi). In addition there is a single untidy pencilled note in the hand of John Hancock, initialled by him, in vol.II page 194. The notes on the flyleaf of Vol.I in Jane Bewick's hand are “I have gone over my Fathers corrections in pencil with a crow quill fearing his remarks might be obliterated. Jane Bewick Oct 11th 1849. He looked over this book every morning after breakfast, from its publication, to within ten days of his death. He appeared to have great pleasure in doing so JB” and later “The corrections made by my Father were done with a view to the next Edition. Jane Bewick.” The subsequent edition was seen through the press by R.E. Bewick and published in 1832. Donated to the Natural History Society by Miss Isabella Bewick, August 1881. Hancock Museum accession “NEWHM:1997.H43”.)

409. Bewick, T. A Supplement to the History of British Water Birds, 8vo, Newcastle: Printed by Edward Walker, n.d. [?1821]; printed on office paper, unbound and uncut. (G108,H248)

(Thomas Bewick's own copy with his autograph note, 3 lines at page 5, a sketch of birds on page 11, and ms corrections for the press. Sold to Pearson for 9/-.)

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410. [Bewick, T. A Supplement to the History of British Birds, 2nd Edition, royal 8vo, Newcastle: Edward Walker, 1821; largely unopened.  (M179,R95)

(Inscribed in an unknown hand (perhaps Robinson's) “From the Bewick Sale - Feb 5th 1884”; no other identifying marks. Bought by R Robinson for £2-7-6, in 1884. No doubt acquired from him by Pease.)]

411. Bewick, T. British Birds: the figures engraved on wood by T. Bewick [Figures of British Land and Water Birds], 2 vols demy 8vo, in green boards, [? 1805].    (R102)

(Collection of proofs, with pencilled dates on the title pages “1797” and “1804”, but probably from the 1805 edition, said to have been Thomas Bewick's own set (see note in R102). There are two letters dated 1851 from the bookseller William Garret to the Revd Thomas Hugo in a pocket in the back cover. This may be the copy recorded as dated 1797 and 1804 at H261 (see 396, above.)

412. [Bewick, Thomas. Vignettes, 4to, Newcastle: Edw. Walker, 1827.            (G119,H234,Q193)

(Loose sheets, inscribed “For Home, perfect” by Miss Bewick, and “Bought of the Misses Bewick, June 1850” by Hugo. Inserted invoice for £6-4-0, dated 11 June 1850, signed by Miss Bewick. Bought at the 1877 Hugo sale for £13-15-0 by Rimell. Sold at the 1895 Pinkney sale, buyer not recorded.)]

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