Illustrations of Natural History Book
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Edinburgh: (N.p.), 1842. 24mo. (11)ff. A handmade textbook of animals from around the world, written and illustrated by George Cressy Hall, H.S.B. The book opens with a hand-lettered title page, and each page has a beautifully rendered pen and ink illustration of an animal with concise, informative text describing the creature below. The text is entirely written by hand, in a fine copperplate script. Included are the roebuck, llama, hyena, zebra, eagle, emu, heron, carp, rattlesnake, and a butterfly. The drawings appear to have been carefully copied from the illustrations in books on natural history of the period; several are nearly identical to those found in The Tower Menagerie, a popular account of the exotic creatures in the royal zoo of the Tower of London, published by Robert Jennings in 1829. The last page bears a small vignette of an old man walking into the sunset, with the word Finis. A late nineteenth century inscription inside the front cover reads, This book of Pen and Ink Drawings was done by my first cousin George Cressy Hall, whilst an undergraduate at Edinburgh in 1841.2 -- Edwd. Marshall Hall. The inscription was likely written by the celebrated English barrister Edward Marshall Hall, who was known as The Great Defender. Little is known about the artist, and this is the only known example of his work. Spine sunned, corners and extremities rubbed, some foxing to endpapers, spot to margin of a few pages, not affecting the illustrations or text, else about fine in half calf over marbled paper boards. (Item ID: 24151)
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Illustrations of Natural History Book
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