Tailpiece (page 84) from The Fables of Aesop
Thomas Bewick
British, 1753–1828
1818
A tiny wood-engraved tailpiece by Thomas Bewick, printed at the foot of a page of Aesop’s Fables to punctuate the text with a small narrative image.
You first notice how compact and crisply hatched the scene is—a miniature vignette of a mounted man and a standing companion rendered in delicate cross‑hatching that sits like a quiet, comic afterword beneath the dense type.
Bewick’s precise, economical wood engravings helped reinvent book illustration by bringing naturalistic detail and narrative charm into mass‑printed books, shaping nineteenth‑century visual culture.
Medium
Wood engraving from an illustrated book with 323 wood engravings and one etching and engraving
Dimensions
composition (irreg.): 15/16 × 1 5/8" (2.4 × 4.2 cm); page (irreg.): 8 1/4 × 5 5/16" (21 × 13.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
The Louis E. Stern Collection
Accession
680.1964.79
Palette
Exhibitions
