Our Village

First thus (with illustrations by Hugh Thomson). [5], viii-lx, [3], 4-256pp, with tissue-guarded frontispiece and 100 illustrations, including 13 full page plates.  Superbly gilt-blocked publisher’s green cloth over panels and spine.  All edges gilt.  Green endpapers.  Cloth a little worn, rounded on corners and spine ends, sunned over spine, with mottled marks over a third of the rear panel, slight loss around spine.  Slight lean.  Hinges cracked.  Previous owner’s name neatly inked on mildly marked front free endpaper.  Tissue guard browned with closed tear, hint of toning in margins of first and last few leaves else internally neat and clean.

Our Village is a charming set of  sketches of rural village life in England in the early part of the 19th century, first published during the 1820s and 1830s.  Hugh Thomson was an Irish illustrator, founder of the Cranford School, whose illustrations appeared in works by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, J M Barrie and other leading writers.