The Pilgrim's Progress - by John Bunyan - 1811 Edition, part I & II

John Bunyan (1628 - 1688)

"John Bunyan, author of the immortal allegory The Pilgrim's Progress (1678, 1684), was born in 1628 in Elstow, near Bedford, to Thomas Bunyan and his second wife, Margaret Bentley Bunyan.

John Bunyan had very little schooling. He followed his father in the tinker's trade, and he served in the parliamentary army from1644 to 1647. Bunyan married in 1649 and lived in Elstow until 1655, when his wife died. He then moved to Bedford, and married again in 1659. John Bunyan was received into the Baptist church in Bedford by immersion in 1653.

In 1655, Bunyan became a deacon and began preaching, with marked success from the start. In 1658 he was indicted for preaching without a license. The authorities were fairly tolerant of him for a while, and he did not suffer imprisonment until November of 1660, when he was taken to the county jail in Silver Street, Bedford, and there confined (with the exception of a few weeks in 1666) for 12 years until January 1672.

After 1672 the political situation changed, and except for a six-month return to prison in 1677, Bunyan was relatively free to travel and preach, which he did with immense energy and goodwill. Bunyan's principal fictional works were published during the post-imprisonment period: the two parts of The Pilgrim's Progress in 1678 and 1684

John Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim's Progress in two parts, which he had begun during his imprisonment in 1676. 

Sadly, much of what Bunyan wrote has been forgotten. 

Some say that Bunyan's famous allegory about Pilgrim's journey to the Celestial City has been second only to the Bible itself in the number of copies sold worldwide over the three and a half centuries since it was first published."

More information on John Bunyan can be found here (Poetry Foundation UK)

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The Pilgrim's Progress

"It is regarded as one of the most significant works of religious English literature. It has been translated into more than 200 languages and has never been out of print."

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Frontispiece: 

Portrait of John Bunyan - Engraved by J. Wallis, from an Origibnal Painting by John Fountain.

London

Published by J. Goodwin, 448 Strand.

Title-page:

The Pilgrim's Progress

by 

John Bunyan

(Engraving:

"I lighted on a certain place where there was a den & laid down by that place to sleep" Part. I

Drawn by C. Mufs.        Engraved by J. Wallis)

London.

Published by I.Goodwin, No 448 Strand.

and sold 

by Davies & Eldridge, Exeter.

Letter press title page:

The

Pilgrim's Progress,

From

This World to that which is to come;

In Two Parts.

Delivered under the 

Similitude of a Dream.

Wherein is discovered,

Part one,

The Manner of His setting out;

His dangerous Journey;

And his safe arrival at the desired Country.

Part two.

The manner of the setting out of Christian's Wife and Children;

Their dangerous Journey, 

And safe arrival at the desired Country.

By JOHN BUNYAN

"I have used Similitudes."  Hosea xii

LONDON:

Printed by J. Wallis, 77, Berwick Street, Soho;

For J. Goodwin, 10 Ave Maria Lane;

Sold by Davis and Eldridge, Exeter;

And may be had of all Booksellers and Newsmen, in Town and Country.

1811

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Click on any of the images below for full size photographs.

Available in our online store.

Caroline Burnett - Oil on Canvas - Signed - Depicting a Parisian scene

Caroline Burnett 

(Or perhaps even Carolyn)

Although a recent painting, probably dating to 1950/60, it is somewhat intriguing in regards to rumours surrounding the artist. 

One very keen individual has taken the time to do some research on the artist, you can find the full write up here:

Some excerpts from aforementioned website:

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"Forenames for this artist have been surmised. The most popular of these have been Caroline, Carolyn, Will, Charles, Jan and Mileu.  Suggested dates of the paintings of this artist have varied from 1940’s to 1990’s. People have ruminated on the fact some paintings seem the same, but each are painted only a few metres away from the last painting, so the scene extends on in each representation.

One rumour has it that the paintings were churned out in a sweat shop in Mexico and were named such because the owner said that if people found out who painted them they will burn it, thus the name ‘Burnett’. Another says the assembly line was in China. Others say struggling artists copied the paintings and signatures, or that new and struggling artists go to Paris, paint the scenes with the Burnett signature, and then sell them on.

The truth? It was in fact the artist Caroline Burnett who has survived the myths to become the legend. An American artist, listed in the Who’s Who of American Art, she lived and painted in Paris. Her medium was oil and she always signed BURNETT at the bottom right of her paintings. She painted in the third quarter of the nineteenth century, inspired by the scenes surrounding her. Her Moulin Rouge painting was bought in 1971 at $1000, but her paintings have been bought and sold worldwide for pennies to fortunes."

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Whichever the case may be, it is a beautiful painting, in very charming pastel colours. I would guess that it may have been created in the 1950s, judging by the outfits of the pedestrians. 

The painting is available in our online store.

The Poems of Thomas Gray - Engravings from the desing of R. Westall - 1826 (engravings mostly 1821)

The 

Poems

of 

Thomas Gray,


Embellished with engravings.
From the designs of

Rich.d Westall R.A.

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                                                                Thomas Gray 1716 - 1771

"Thomas Gray is generally considered the second most important poet of the eighteenth century (following Alexander Pope) and the most disappointing. 

It was generally assumed by friends and readers that he was the most talented poet of his generation, but the relatively small and even reluctantly published body of his works has left generations of scholars puzzling over the reasons for his limited production and meditating on the general reclusiveness and timidity that characterized his life.

Gray's poetry is concerned with the rejection of sexual desire. The figure of the poet in his poems is often a lonely, alienated, and marginal one, and various muses or surrogate-mother figures are invoked

The typical "plot" of the four longer poems of 1742 has to do with engaging some figure of desire to repudiate it, as in the "Ode on the Spring," or, as in the Eton College ode, to lament lost innocence."

For more information on the individual poems visit the Poetry Foundation

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The book is embellished with engravings after the desing of Richard Westall (1765–1836), an English painter and illustrator.

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The title-page

R.Westall R.A.del.                                            W.Finden Sc.

"Be thine Despair, and sceptred Care;

To triump, and to die, are mine."

The Bard.

London:

Printed for John Sharpe, Piccadilly.

1821 

2nd title-page

 London: 

Printed for John Sharpe,

And Other Proprietors;

By C. and C. Whittingham, Chiswick.

1826

This book is available in our online store.