JOHN BEWICK. 



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Amongst the earliest publications issued in London with woodcuts the 

 authentic work of John Bewick are the " Children's Miscellany," 1787 ; the 

 " Honours of the Table," 1788 ; and the 1786, '90, '91, and '92 volumes of the 

 " Habitable World Described." The first contains twenty-nine, said on the 

 title-page to be by " Bewick;" yet only a few display anything but the most 

 ordinary spirit. Those at pp. 34 and 1 67 are the best, and greatly resemble 

 the works of John: the Gilpin design, signed "J. Bewick, del? and scul?," 

 has some action, but its correctness is questionable. The " Honours of the 

 Table, with the whole Art of Carving Illustrated by a Variety of Cuts" (the 

 play on the words is obvious), contains illustrations which are little else than 

 diagrams : the second edition (1791) has an additional block. 



In 1789 there was published in London a volume containing the first 

 large series of engravings that John carried through, and one of his most 

 important undertakings. This was the " Emblems of Mortality," issued by 

 T. Hodgson, the publisher of the Hieroglyphick Bible, whose office was in 

 George's Court, St. John's Lane, Clerkenwell, close to where John resided- 

 The frontispiece represents a general procession of all ranks proceeding slowly 

 to the grave, each mortal being accompanied by a skeleton ; there are a pope, 

 an emperor, a prince, a canoness, a bishop, and others lower in the spiritual 

 and social scale. This engraving was prepared specially for this edition, as the 

 English publisher found it inexpedient to insert the design in the original, 

 which represented the Godhead in the dress of a pope. The general illus- 

 trations are taken from the Latin edition of " Imagines Mortis," Lyons, 1547, 

 with some additional designs from one published in French in 1562. As an 

 introduction, designs representing the Creation, the Fall, and the Curse of Man 

 are first given. Then follow those intended specially to display the mortality 

 of man, with a picture of the Pope : " Soon shall thy office in the place a 

 successor admit." Although the work is scarce in Bewick's editions, the 

 designs have been so often described that it is needless to do so here. They 

 are summed up in the words, " In these small leaves there is a world of 



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