GEORGE CRUIKSHANK'S TABLE-BOOK
Book Details + Condition: The Punch Office (London). First Edition, 1845. Fine binding hardcover. Brown Moroccan full leather boards with raised bands on spine. Hand-colored blue and white watercolor endpapers with gilt design borders. All edges gilt. 284 pages with 12 steel engraving and 116 woodcut illustrations by George Cruikshank. Large illustrated collection of short stories and poems from noted authors of the day including: Horace Mayhew; Paul Pendergast; Shirly Brooks; Gilbert Becket and Mark Lemon. George Cruikshank was a British caricaturist and book illustrator, praised as the "modern Hogarth" during his lifetime. His book illustrations for his friend Charles Dickens, and many other authors, reached an international audience. Contents include: Afterwards Harlequin (John Oxenford); The Age of Monsters (Horace Mayhew); The Demon of 1845 (John Oxenford); Hints For a Domestic Police (Shirley Brooks); A Genuine Ghost Story (Horace Mayhew); A Frightful Narrative (Mark Lemon); and more. An overall firm and clean copy of a beautiful first edition, with tight binding; rubbed corners, edges and spine edge; light wear to leather boards, with some scuffs; interior is clean and free of markings save normal age toning to pages.
