George Cruikshanks Illustrations second edition 1836 Edward Bawden's copy

Edward Bawden's copy, given to him by fellow artist Percy Horton and his wife Lydia
 
CRUIKSHANK, George. George Cruikshank's Illustrations of Humphrey Clinker, Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, Tom Jones, Joseph Andrews, Amelia, Vicar of Wakefield, and Sir Lancelot Greaves. London: Charles Tilt, 1836.
 
Octavo, 175 x 110 mm. 82 pp. With 40 of the 41 engraved plates by George Cruikshank, lacking the first plate, "Humphrey's Introduction". Bound in full brown morocco by H. Sotheran & Co., London, with five raised bands and gilt spine lettering, marbled endpapers. Binding worn, particularly at the joints and corners; both joints cracked and the boards tender but still attached. Internally clean. A good copy overall. Edward Bawden's copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper: "Edward Bawden from Lydia and Percy Horton."
 
A presentation copy linking two figures from the generation of British artists associated with the Royal College of Art. Percy Horton (1897-1970) studied at the RCA from 1922, alongside Edward Bawden, Eric Ravilious and Henry Moore, and later returned as a member of the teaching staff from 1930 to 1949. He subsequently became Ruskin Master of Drawing at Oxford University, remaining in the post until 1964. His work is represented in a number of major public collections including Tate, the National Portrait Gallery and the Imperial War Museum.
 
Horton had also been an absolutist conscientious objector during the First World War. His refusal of military service led to court martial and imprisonment with hard labour, and his health deteriorated seriously before his release in 1917. Lydia Sargent Smith, whom he married in 1921, had been among those who campaigned on his behalf. The illustrations themselves had first appeared in 1832 as Illustrations of Smollett, Fielding, and Goldsmith, a suite of 41 plates drawn from Cruikshank's work for Roscoe's Novelist's Library. This 1836 edition retains the suite under a recast title listing the individual works illustrated.