This book is entitled Picture Fables Drawn By Otto Specter, Engraved by The Brothers Dalziel, With Rhymes Translated From the German Of F. Hey, By H. W. Dulcken, and published in 1863 by Routledge, Warne, and Routledge. It is a new edition, according to the title page, and it was printed by R. Clay in London. 

The book has a gilt decorated spine and a blue and gilt blindstamped front cover, blank endpapers, an illustrated frontis by Speckter, a decorated title page, then a regular title page with no decorations, a two-page Preface vii - viii, 101 pages of text, a blindstamped cover on the backside, and all the edges are gilt. 

There is a large head-piece engraved on each page, with two stanzas and a sestet - six lines of poetry - below each engraving, and the engravings were done by the Brothers Dalziel, the largest and most influential wood engraving from in London at the time. They were founded by George Dalziel in 1839 and closed their doors in 1893 because their woodcuts were replaced by photochemical processes, and it was a family business that actually included three brothers and their sister Margaret. They cut the illustrations Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland books and Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense (1862) and others, so they were highly respected, and the British Museum even has 54,000 proofs of the firm’s woodcuts in their archives. 

The book measures 8 x 5 1/2 inches wide and is in great condition. The binding is tight and the engravings are very clean, with lightly pencilled notes on a front flyleaf, a light paper repair on page 22, and faint brown spots in just a couple of places. A great book for someone interested in woodcuts and German fables. 

Size: 8 x 5 1/2 x 1/2 in. 

#8711