Demy 8vo (202 x 121 mm). Engraved frontispiece printed in red and black with Bewick's engraved thumbprint and facsimile signature, engraved printer's device on title-page, profusely illustrated with wood-engravings by Bewick. (Some spotting and toning.) 19th-century blue morocco gilt, edges gilt, (some chipping). Provenance: Mr. Jife (signature); R.W. Martin (bookplate, Longbenton, [Northumberland]).

FIRST EDITION, one of 1,000 copies printed, variant A with "Auld Clouty" wood-engraving at bottom of page XVI, and with last line in page 248 reading "road of honour and honesty." Engraver Thomas Bewick is credited for reviving wood-engraving during the 18th-century and illustrated several editions of Aesop's Fables throughout his career. He worked on the present work in 1812 before it was published in 1818. This present work is part of Bewick's third edition of Aesop's fables, and highlight's his pioneering method of "white-line" engraving (Uglow, p. xiii). Roscoe 45c; Uglow, Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick, 2006.