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Select Fables of Esop and other Fabulists. In Three Books.

Author: Aesop
Etched by: Charles Grignion (English, 1717–1810)
After: Samuel Wale (English, died in 1786)
Author: Robert Dodsley (English, 1703–1764)
Printer: John Baskerville (English, 1706–1775)
Publisher: Robert Dodsley (English, 1703–1764)
Publisher: James Dodsley (English, 1724–1797)
1761
Place of Publication: Birmingham, England

Medium/Technique Illustrated book with numerous etching and engravings
Dimensions Overall: 17.4 x 11.8 x 2.5 cm (6 7/8 x 4 5/8 x 1 in.)
Credit Line William A. Sargent Collection—Bequest of William A. Sargent
Accession Number37.1949
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsIllustrated books
Birmingham: John Baskerville for R. and J. Dodsley, 1761

Catalogue Raisonné Brunet I, 103; ESTC T084696; Gaskell, Baskerville, 14
Description(Birmingham: John Baskerville for R. and J. Dodsley, 1761) Octavo; 158 leaves, plus 16 plates; modern gilt-stamped green morocco in a green paper board slipcase (Sangorski & Sutcliffe).

Allegorical frontispiece; small medallion illustrations to each fable; decorative head- and tailpiece vignettes.

First edition; three "books" in one volume. The first are fables "from the ancients," the second "from the moderns," and the third "newly invented." The latter are by Robert Dodsley, as is the "Essay on Fable." A later edition appeared in 1764. Several head- and tailpieces are signed by Grignion as engraver after Wale, but the frontispiece and medallion fable illustrations are unsigned (and seem cruder than the Grignion etchings).
ProvenanceAcquired in 1922 by William A. Sargent, Boston (1858-1936), by whom bequeathed to MFA, November 17, 1937.