Collection of approximately 60 proof etchings by Cruikshank for various illustrated books, most on India paper, some 2 or more per plate, most mounted on backing sheets. Also, 1 wood-engraved proof. Various sizes.

Significant collection of original proof etchings by one of the premier illustrators and caricaturists of the nineteenth century. Includes 8 illustrating Peregrine Pickle; 10 for Modern Chivalry (5 unlettered proofs, mounted, and 5 proofs after letters, unmounted, of the same images); 4 for The Yule Log (on 1 sheet); 4 for Humphrey Clinker (plus a portrait of the author Tobias Smollett, not by Cruikshank); 10 for Gil Blas; 8 for Tom Jones (along with a portrait of the author Henry Fielding, not by Cruikshank); 8 for Fielding’s Amelia; 5 for Roderick Random; 4 for Joseph Andrews; 1 for The Exile’s Daughter; plus the illustration The Queen and the Union; and a rare woodcut proof "Two Black Beauties Conversing on the Extraordinary Veracity of Jonah."Provenance: From the collection of Alfred Cohn, bibliographer of the works of George Cruikshank, with his bookplate on the inside of the folder containing The Queen and the Union, and pencil notes regarding the subjects of the plates.