The History of Little Henry and His Bearer. SHERWOOD (Mary Martha).

A TENTH BIRTHDAY PRESENT FROM HER AFFECTIONATE SISTER

Engraved frontispiece and additional engraved title.

Thirty-first Edition. 12mo. [145 x 93 x 14 mm]. [3], 6-139, [7] pp. Bound in contemporary quarter black roan, marbled paper sides, smooth spine divided into four panels by a gilt fillet lettered and priced in the second, the others with a central quatrefoil tool, plain endleaves, sprinkled edges. (Rubbed).
London: printed for Houlston and Son, 65 Paternoster-Row, and at Wellington, Sallop, 1837.

Bound without the half-title but with the 6pp list of "Books printed by and for F. Houlston & Son". Marginal tear pp.35-6, without loss and a few spots, but a good copy. The spine has the original price of "2/6".

Inscribed in ink on the front endleaf: "Anna Maria from her affectionate sister Mary Priestman on the tenth anniversary of her birth day. Summerhill. 23 of 3 mo. 1838" and in pencil "for dear Alice Clark Sept.28 1906". Anna Maria (1828-1914) and Mary (1830-1914) were daughters of Jonathan Priestman and his wife Rachel (nee Bragg) and were brought up in the Summerhill district of Newcastle. Their elder sister, Elizabeth, married the liberal politician and reformer John Bright, and they were both involved in the formation of early women's suffrage societies and the Ladies' National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act. Neither married and they lived together in Bristol, dying five days apart. Their niece Helen Priestman Bright married William Stephens Clark, and Alice Clark (1874-1934) was one of their six children. She was also a social reformer and women's rights campaigner.

First published in 1814 and continuously in print for 70 years, with translations into French, German, Spanish, Hindustani, Chinese, Marathi, Tamil and Sinhalese. There is a copy of this 31st edition at Oxford.

Stock no. ebc7839