EMBLEMS FOR THE YOUNG FROM SCRIPTURE, NATURE AND ART

London: Religious Tract Society, 1845. Very good.. Mid-Victorian edition of this attractive little reader that invites children to consider its many illustrations in order to enhance the moral effect of the text. Cornelius Neale acknowledges that the woodcut emblems he assembled for this volume come from a variety of sources, and have, in many cases been used in earlier publications; "some have been picked up here and there, where the author could not now readily find them" (xiii). An interesting example of the money-saving ingenuity of some popular printers, additionally bringing up questions of attribution and copyright practice in the Victorian era. 16mo. 5.75 x 3.74" Contemporary quarter black leather binding with red boards. Red endpapers. Illustrated with a black-and-white frontispiece and numerous woodcuts throughout. xxviii, 80 pages, collated complete. Small bookplate to front pastedown with two complex interlocking Rs. Boards with some rubbing, minimal color infills to edges; cracking to joints carefully repaired. Lacking frontispiece tissue guard. Clean and tight.