Cloth casing, with a gilt device.

An unsigned original design by George Cruikshank.

1845.

Elaborate gilt device and title imprinted on smooth-textured green cloth, which has faded to grey-green.

9½ x 6¾ inches

A typical example of Cruikshank’s droll and dynamic style, inviting the reader to enter his world of visual conceits and grotesque characterization. Cruikshank may have provided some hundreds of gilt designs for his own and others’ books – he illustrated more than 800 publications in total – but the loss of so many cloth bindings makes establishing a bibliography a problematic task.

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Photograph and text by Simon Cooke

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