1855 Rare Book - The Arabian Nights Entertainments Illustrated by William Harvey.
This beautiful book has been sold!
Author : William Harvey (Illustrator).
Title : The Arabian Nights Entertainments. The Second Edition. In One Volume. With Illustrations by William Harvey.
Publisher : London, G. Routledge & Co., 1855. Second edition (stated).
Language : Text in English.
Size : 8 " X 5.5 ".
Pages : viii-991 pages
Binding : Attractive and very good original decorated cloth binding (overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown, spine slightly sunned) under a protective removable mylar cover.
Content : Very good content (bright, tight and clean, some light foxing and staining - as shown, name of a previous owner on first endpaper).
Illustrations : Complete with all the beautiful illustrations by William Harvey.
Estimate : (USD 250 - USD 400)
The book : Rare and attractive illustrated edition the Arabian Nights.
The illustrator : William Harvey (13 July 1796 – 1866) was a British wood-engraver and illustrator. Born at Newcastle upon Tyne, Harvey was the son of a bath-keeper. At the age of 14, he was apprenticed to Thomas Bewick, and became one of his favorite pupils. Bewick describes him as one "who both as an engraver & designer, stands preeminent" at his day (Memoir, p. 200). He engraved many woodblocks for Bewick's Aesop's Fables (1818). Harvey moved to London in 1817, studying drawing with Benjamin Haydon, and anatomy with Charles Bell. In 1821, he made a wood-engraving after Haydon in imitation of engraving, the large block of the Assassination of L. S. Dentatus. This was probably the then most ambitious woodblock which had been cut in England. Harvey switched to design, after the death of John Thurston, the then leading wood designer in London. One of his earliest works is his illustrations for Alexander Henderson's History of Ancient and Modern Wines in 1824. His masterpieces are his illustrations to Northcote's Fables s buried in Richmond Cemetery.