Animal sagacity

London : S. W. Partridge, [1868]. First edition. Large octavo (210 x 170 mm), publisher’s blind-blocked green cloth (corners bumped), upper board with chromolithographic illustration inlaid within gilt border (very good), spine decorated in gilt (short split to cloth at tail), pastedowns and endpapers with publisher’s advertisements, original owner’s name in ink to verso of front endpaper, colour frontispiece and title page, pp. vi, 168, [8 publisher’s advertisements]; with numerous full-page plates and text illustrations by Harrison Weir (fknown as “The Father of the Cat Fancy”); occasional handling marks at the margins, but generally an excellent copy.

First edition of this beautiful animal book for children: although stories about cats and dogs predominate, there are also anecdotes about horses, chickens, elephants, bears, birds, sheep, mice, rats and other creatures.