The Peacock and Parrot,

£1,500 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

The first edition of this scarce illustrated children's tale in the original wrappers, with contemporary hand-coloured plates after designs by William Mulready (1786-1863). The book was published following the tremendous success of Catherine Ann Dorset's (d.1816?) The Peacock at Home, which sold 40,000 copies within a year, and reached a twenty-eighth edition by 1819. The present work is much less well-known, with WorldCat recording only 16 copies in institutional collections worldwide. With an early female gift inscription 'For Sarah King from her sister Honora'(?). First edition; 16mo (12.5 x 10.5 cm); 6 hand-coloured engraved plates including frontispiece, gift inscription in pen to front free endpaper; original pictorial wrappers, rebacked in green card, housed in a modern grey cloth clamshell case, contrasting red morocco title-piece to spine, a very good example. Moon 605; Gumuchian 2251.

• Binding: Hardcover

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