Library Company of Philadelphia

Happy Caturday! How great is this image featuring a clever old cat and some even cleverer mice? We are obsessed.

Aesop’s Fables: a new version, chiefly from original sources. Philadelphia : Geo. S. Appleton, 1851. 208, [8] p. : ill. ; 16 cm.

— 5 years ago with 22 notes

#BensLibrary #Caturday #AesopsFables #Fables #CatandMice #Cats #CatsofTumblr #1850s #RareBooks #SpecialCollections #Tumblarians

Check out the beautiful spring scene on the fore-edge of our copy of John Gray’s Fables, published in 1812. Fore-edge paintings are a lot of fun to discover. The full scene is hidden until the viewer bends the pages, as we have done in the video.

Fables / By John Gray. Gay, John, 1685-1732. [London] : Printed at the Chiswick Press, by C. Whittingham; for J. Carpenter, J. Booker, and Sharpe and Hailes, London, 1812. xx, 226, p. : ill. ; 17 cm. (8vo)

— 5 years ago with 25 notes

#BensLibrary #ForedgeFriday #SpecialCollections #RareBooks #Spring #Roses #Snails #ForedgePaintings #Tumblarians #1810s #Fables #ForeEdgeFriday #ForeEdgePaintings

#Caturday turns to night with a kitty couple catching moonlight.

Routlege’s Coloured Scrap Book. [1868?]

— 6 years ago with 3 notes

#childrensillustration #Illustration #nurseryrhymes #fables #benslibrary #rarebooks #wood block printing