1800 Woodcuts by Thomas Bewick and His School

This is a publication I was very familiar with and it was a delight to be able to track down a new copy. The examples are a wonderful source of pictorial reference for earlier times and trades and the craftsmanship involved in their execution is exquisite.

The good thing is you can get all of Bewick's (or more precisely his workshop's) engravings, not only the mammals, birds and vignettes but also some miscellaneous designs, with such a cheap price. The bad thing is the images are arranged thematically, with the whole book giving an impression of hotchpotch. The arrangement can be confusing: Bewick's famous vignette depicting a little girl pulling a horse's tail find itself under the theme "Agriculture", instead of "Children and Animals". Of course we can't complain too much as it's not easy to arrange such a great number of designs, most of which being impossible to be dated. And the printing is good considering the low price. All in all, a good bargain as usually with the Dover series.