Scarce 1802 Copy, Samuel Croxall's Fables of Aesop, First Wilmington Edition, with Engravings Throughout (Great Bedtime Reading!) sliding drawer 2 1/2" x 1 13/16"

2 1/2" x 1 13/16" and in good condition

much more commonly one sees antique handheld plier-like molds

I'm not quite sure if the bird was inlaid or just incised very finely and then painted/stained a slightly stronger red--but of it feels now like this happy surprise

They were ultimately replaced by the (far less beautiful

The wonderfully gestural surface decoration evinces a vertical sequence of blooms

Scarce 1802 Copy, Samuel Croxall's Fables of Aesop, First Wilmington Edition, with Engravings Throughout (Great Bedtime Reading!) sliding drawer 2 1/2" x 1 13/16"This one made me very happy to find an 1802 copy of Aesop's Fables, translated into English by Samuel Croxall, this copy specifically the "First Wilmington Edition," printed and sold by Peter Brynberg, Wilmington, De. Seems quite a good time to revisit these allegorical tales delivering moral instruction, and I must say the tales take on a special sort of gravitas when delivered in a book more than 200 years old, the reading of which requires one to