LIfe of George Stubbs R. A. -- Limited Edition

London: Vinton & Co, 1898. Limited Edition. Leather bound. Very Good. 4to. Pp. xxvii, 234. Frontis. engraved portrait. with tissue guard. Illustrated with 13 plates of steel engravings by J. B. Pratt and wood engravings by F. Babbage. Number 16 of an edition limited to 150 copies. Marbled endpapers. Bound in dark red pebble-grain morocco with elaborate gilt figures on front and rear covers, gilt lettering and figures stamped on spine, inside dentelles. Top edge gilt. With the discreet contemporary ownership stamps of Edmund Tweedale of Marland, Rochdale ("High Birch") on preliminaries and pp. 79 and 123. (Tweedale an award-winning horseman in his own right.) Slight loss at head of spine, and binding is a trifle cocked, but perhaps slightly shaken better describes the condition. A faded dampstain ring on front cover. The book remains sturdy and well bound. Stubbs was the foremost English animal painter of his age, an appelation earned by engaging in the dissection of horses at a Lincolnshire farm bought for that purpose. Thus, like da Vinci, Stubbs depictions of nature are informed by his experiences as an anatomist. Stubbs was dismissed as a mere painter of horses while his contemporaries engaged in studies of the ancient world to understand and convey the condition of man. As recognized today, Stubbs prioritized the study of nature to understand the world, and specifically the noble qualities of the horse, thus presenting an argument that nature, not man, always prevails as the supreme universal truth. Scarce. Bookseller inventory P0312200J.