[Franklin, Benjamin]: Dighton, Robert, artist:

$3,500 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

BOWLES'S MORAL PICTURES; OR POOR RICHARD ILLUSTRATED. BEING LESSONS FOR THE YOUNG AND THE OLD, ON INDUSTRY, TEMPERANCE, FRUGALITY, &c. BY THE LATE DR. BENJ. ... The scarce first edition of Bowles's Moral Pictures, or, Poor Richard Illustrated, a collection of charmingly illustrated maxims from Benjamin Franklin's Way to Wealth, published in many shapes and forms over the years for the entertainment and edification of young people in Britain and America. The artist, Robert Dighton, was a prolific caricaturist and printseller who worked primarily in partnership with the publisher, Carington Bowles. While his caricatures were what made ends meet, he may be best known for the present series of illustrations, which have appeared in a profusion of editions and formats over the years in both England and America, including a Manchester edition only a year after this first, a Boston edition printed just after the Civil War, contemporary and later jigsaw puzzles, folding pocket issues, and even a 20th-century series printed on individual ceramic tiles.The sense of humor and eye-catching scenes which served Dighton well as a contemporary of Gilray and Cruikshank are on full display in this print, with entertaining vignettes illustrating such classic maxims as "Three removes are as bad as a fire; and a rolling stone gathers no moss," "The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands," and "Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." "Not to oversee

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