History of Little Goody Two Shoes [and:] The Juvenile Biographer; containing the Lives of Little Masters & Misses [and:] A Little Pretty Pocket-Book [and:] The Picture Exhibition; Containing the Original Drawings of Eighteen Disciples.

Worcester: Isaiah Thomas, 1787-8.

Price: $37,500.00


About the item

First Worcester editions. Illustrated. 4 vols. 32mo. Original green gilt Dutch paper wrappers. Fine (small paper flaw in frontispiece of Little Pretty Pocket-Book). Full morocco pull off case. Welch 463.4, 680.1, 685, 778.2; Rosenbach 118, 119, 120, 134; Evans 20412, 20440, 20459, 21392. Provenance: Lenox Library (duplicate stamps); M. C. Lefferts (morocco labels).

Item #322006

Isaiah Thomas’ edition of History of Little Goody Two Shoes, the famed nursery classic and “the most celebrated of all the books in John Newbery’s Lilliputian library” (Rosenbach), together with A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, “one of the most influential and important books in the history of juvenile literature”, as well as The Juvenile Biographer and The Picture Exhibition. With duplicate stamps from the Lenox Library and the small labels of Marshall C. Lefferts (1848-1928), “one of the old fashioned collectors of the eighties and nineties”, who formed collections of Americana and English literature, sold in 1902 (Cannon, American Book Collectors, pp. 152-4).

An outstanding set of the Isaiah Thomas juveniles, with notable provenance.