1860 Scarce First Edition - The Nine Lives of a Cat - Tale of Wonder illustrated by Charles H. Bennett.
(Description)
Author: Charles Bennett.
Title: The Nine Lives of a Cat: A Tale of Wonder.
Publisher: London, Griffith and Farran, 1860. First Edition.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 7.5" X 5.5".
Pages:[3], 21 leaves, printed on one side only; 16 pages of publishers catalog at the end.
Binding: Attractive and very good original gilt decorated full=cloth binding (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover.
Content: Good to very good content (bright, tight, some light foxing, toning or staining - as shown, first inner endpaper hinge slightly worn but still tight - as shown, small old bookseller stamp on the first endpaper - as shown).
Illustrations: Complete with the frontispiece, illustrated title page, and 21 other wonderful cat illustrations by Charles Henry Bennett.
Estimate: (USD 450 - USD 500)
The book: Scarce and attractive First edition of those Nine Lives of a Cat by Bennett. Including 21 wonderful illustrated pages with humorous rhymes for each of the nine lives.
The illustrator: Charles Henry Bennett (26 July 1828 – 2 April 1867) was a prolific Victorian illustrator who pioneered techniques in comic illustration. 1858 saw the publication of the first of more than a dozen children's books illustrated by Charles Bennett. Old Nurse's Book of Rhymes, Jingles & Ditties (1858) was, as the title suggests, a collection of children's verses with color illustrations on every page and a frontispiece illustrating ‘Old Nurse at Home.’ Among the children's books that followed were the very short Nine Lives of a Cat (1860), with its twenty rather crudely illustrated pages and The Adventurers of Young Munchausen (1863), the story of a young man whose fantastic adventures ranged from discovering the source of the Nile to traveling in space in a balloon.