A Select Bibliography on Thomas Bewick
Including John Bewick, Robert Bewick and other ApprenticesThis list of published sources is divided into the following sections:
Bewick in the Nineteenth Century
Twentieth Century Publications
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries
Getting Started (back to top)
Nature's Engraver.
The starting point for the present day reader is Nature's Engraver A Life of Thomas Bewick by Jenny Uglow 2006 (hardback edition); 2007 (paperback edition).
This is better illustrated than any previous biography of Bewick, with one hundred vignettes, fifty figures and thirty three colour illustrations including some of Bewick's watercolour artwork. There is a full list of the workshop apprentices, a bibliography, notes and index. Reviewers have all commented on its readability, comprehensive coverage and penetrating grasp of the relevant cultural history.
In the U.S.A.: Nature's Engraver was published in 2007 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Winner 2007 National Award for Arts Writing presented by Arts Club of Washington, U.S.A.
Re-prints.
Nature's Engraver has encouraged many readers to seek out affordable copies of Bewick's work.
Dover Publications have contributed two popular volumes of Bewick clip art:
1800 Woodcuts by Thomas Bewick and his school. Edited by Blanche Cirker. Dover Books, 1962. Bewick's Animal Woodcuts (Dover Electronic Clip Art) Dover Publications Inc.; Cdr/Pap edition (2004)
Bewick's own works are frequently re-printed. Here is a selction of recently available material.
A General History of Quadrupeds, The Figures Engraved on Wood With a Foreword by Yann Martel, University of Chicago Press (2009).
Bewick's British Birds, Arcturus Publishing Ltd (2010)
A History of British Birds, Thomas Bewick, Folio Society 2010, Introduced by Jenny Uglow, 2 volumes, Quarter-bound in leather with paper sides, Hand-marbled by Jemma Lewis, Coloured top edges, Set in Bulmer, 912 pages in total, Approx. 500 illustrations.
Harder to find
but available often second-hand:
The Fables of Aesop with Designs on Wood By Thomas Bewick, Marqusee, Michael, Paddington Press, London 1975
SELECT FABLES with Cuts, Designed and Engraved By Thomas and John Bewick Previous to the Year 1784 Frank Graham Publishers, Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1975
A General History of Quadrupeds Windward, Leicester, (1980)
Selections from A History of British Birds by Thomas Bewick, Paddington, Masterpieces of the Illustrated Book, London (1976).
Bewick, T., 1978. Vignettes: Being Tail-Pieces Engraved Principally for His 'General History of Quadrupeds' & 'History of British Birds' 1st ed., London: Scolar Press.