Pride and Prejudice with a Preface by George Saintsbury.

London: George Allen Ruskin House 156 Charing Cross Road, [1894].

Price: $3,000.00


About the item

Thomson, Hugh. First Trade edition. Illustrated by Hugh Thomson with the plates on Tissue and tipped in. xxvii, [1], 476, [1] pp. Printed at the Chiswick Press. 1 vols. 4to. Red polished calf, all edges gilt. Front hinge starting. Iconic Hugh Thompson cloth binding bound in at rear. Contemporary gift inscription to endpaper.

Item #323798

In the late 1880’s and through the 90’s, a remarkable illustrator made his appearance on the London scene: Hugh Thomson (1860-1920), perhaps the pre-eminent representative of what has come to be known as ‘the Wig and Powder School’ of English illustration. Thomson’s delicate pen drawings of English life lent themselves perfectly to the new technique of photo-engraving (he was a pioneeer of the genre) and he was soon in popular demand for illustrations of the novels of Jane Austen, Fanny burney, Mrs. Gaskell, Charles Reade, as well as for contemporaries like Austin Dobson. His influence on contemporary illustrators was felt keenly for many years, and can be seen in the work of Charles E. Brock and others of the ‘school.’.