BLAGDON, Francis William (178-1819). Authentic Memoirs of the late George Morland ... with a facsimile of his writing, specimens of his hieroglyphic sketches, &c. London: Barnard and Sultzer for Edward Orme, 1806 [watermarks 1824].

BLAGDON, Francis William (178-1819). Authentic Memoirs of the late George Morland ... with a facsimile of his writing, specimens of his hieroglyphic sketches, &c. London: Barnard and Sultzer for Edward Orme, 1806 [watermarks 1824].

Oblong 2° (438 x 573mm). Portrait frontispiece and 19 coloured plates, etched facsimile of Morland's writing as a text illustration. (Small repaired marginal tear in frontis., faint marginal spotting in one plate.) Contemporary half red roan (neat repairs at spine). Provenance: Fasque (label).

FIRST EDITION, THIRD, DEFINITIVE ISSUE OF 'AN EXTREMELY SCARCE BOOK' (Tooley). The plates are printed in a variety of processes: aquatint, etching, stipple and mezzotint; the mezzotints are colour-printed and the others hand-coloured. The plates are largely after paintings executed at the beginning of the 1790s, when Morland moved to the rural village of Paddington and was inspired by country life and animals to produce some of his best work. Abbey Life 208 (upright folio issue); Tooley 91.