Beschreibung:

GIGANTICK HISTORIES -- BOREMAN, Thomas (fl.1730-1743)]. Curiosities in the Tower of London , London: printed for Thomas Boreman, 1741. 2 volumes. 32° (57 x 43mm). 2 woodcut frontispieces, 13 full-page illustrations, list of subscriber's in both volumes. (A few headlines shaved, occasional light spotting.) Contemporary sheep gilt, red edges (spines rubbed, small chip at top of vol. II). Second edition. Bondy p.22; Gumuchian 4088; Osborne p.799; Spielman 109: "one of the very rare volumes of the 'Gigantick Histories' printed for subscribers only, which are amongst the earliest English children's books dealing with non-religious matters". [T. BOREMAN]. The Gigantick History of the Two Famous Giants and Other Curiosities in Guildhall, London , London: Printed for Thomas Boreman, 1741. 2 volumes. 32° (55 x 43mm). 2 woodcut frontispieces, one full-page illustration, list of subscribers in both volumes. (Frontispiece in vol. II almost detached, margins shaved, lightly soiled). Volume I in contemporary sheep gilt, volume II in contemporary calf gilt, red edges (vol. I rubbed with chip at head of spine, spine of vol. II worn, boards detached with remains of sellotape). Provenance : Ann Clark, June 27th 1802 (inscribed on recto of frontispiece in vol. II). Mixed edition, third corrected edition of volume I and second edition of volume II. Bondy p.22; Gumuchian 4088; Osborne p.800. [T. BOREMAN]. Westminster Abbey , London: Printed for Thomas Boreman, 1742. Volumes I & II only (of 3), 32° (56 x 43mm). 2 woodcut frontispieces, 18 full-page illustrations, list of subscribers in both volumes. (Lacking D8 in vol. I, lower half of E1 in vol. I torn, a few headlines shaved, pencil trials on two pages.) Contemporary sheep gilt, red edges (spines rubbed, small chip at head of spine of vol. II). FIRST EDITIONS. The third volume was published in 1743. Bondy p.22; Osborne p.800. With T. Boreman's The History of Saint Paul's (London, 1741, 2 volumes, FIRST EDITION, defective). RARE set of eight of the ten volumes of Boreman's histories for children, presented in wooden box, seven uniformally bound. Thomas Boreman has by many been described as the first English publisher of childrens books. The importance of his Gigantick Histories "for the History of Children's books is evident as they are the forerunners of the Lilliputian Magazine published by Newbery in 1752. There is no doubt that few of theses children's treasures have survived, as they were thumbed to pieces in the long years that have elapsed since their publication." (Gumuchian 4088). Gottlieb describes Boreman as an imaginative publisher and a considerable innovator. "He [Boreman] developed subscriber's lists, which he printed in his books - a device common enough in publishing, but one never before used for children. Boreman was also the first publisher of children's books to indulge in the practice, later so assiduously (and successfully) followed by John Newbery and Isaiah Thomas, of weaving bits of self-advertising into his texts" (Gottlieb, Early Children's Books and Their Illustration 173). (8)