Peter Prim's Pride, or Proverbs that will suit the young or the old.
London: J. Harris, Corner St. Paul's Church, 1810. First edition. Original Wraps. 12 Mo (4 x 5), 15 hand-colored etchings, each illustrating a proverb, w/ blank page behind each, pink cover w paper label reading "Harris's Cabinet, Prim's Pride, ONE SHILLING, Coloured." Very Good, loose pages. light soiling and torn lower corner to cover, small dogears to first four pages, etchings themselves clean and clear, w/ occasional very light stain from facing colors, former owner's signature "Wendle" on FFE. Item #6812
Possibly the copy of English poet and author William Howitt (December 18, 1792 – March 3, 1879), who later used the pen name Wilfrid Wendle. Howitt was 18 years old in 1810. Marjorie Moon writes in her bibliography of John Harris's Books for Youth 1801-1843, 'pretty little square books ... poured out helter-skelter from the presses to supply the demand for a new kind of nursery book - funny, imaginative and altogether different from the pious moralisings that up till now, with a few honourable exceptions, were the literature of childhood' (Moon 1987: 153).
Price: $2,000.00