PILGRIM'S PROGRESS; From This World To That Which Is To Come by Bunyan, John - 1862

London: Bickers and Son, 1862. First Bickers & Son Thus Illustrated. Vellum / Bickers binding. Good Plus/None. Thomas Stothard, R.A.. Small 4to ~ Royal 8vo (9 1/2" x 6 1/2), vellum quarter leather over blind-stamped blond leather with shield & title; spine with 4 hubs; 16 B&W engraved illustrations by Thomas Stothard, RA, including an oval frontispiece of Bunyan (with tissue guard), marbled endpapers, ribbon page divider, 379 + [2 ads] pages. Weight: 3 lbs. Solid, attractively illustrated and finely bound edition of this highly important and influential allegorical novel first published in 1678. Thomas Stothard, R.A. (1755-1834), painter, engraver, and illustrator, executed the graceful original illustrations for Pilgrim's Progress in 1788. Very popular as an illustrator and engraver, he may be best remembered today, perhaps, for his oil the "Procession of the Canterbury Pilgrims" (Tate), which was quickly engraved by L. Schiavonetti & J. Heath and widely sold. Stothard was also friends with William Blake, the famous engraver-and-poet. Some rubbing and foxing to covers and very early pages (including the borders of the frontispiece of Bunyan, though not affecting that elaborate oval portrait), and foxing to the title page & its tissue guard; plus slight browning and wear to the deckled page-edges. The other 15 plates are remarkably bright, clean, and unfoxed.