SWIFT, Jonathan: Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World [Illustrations by Charles E Brock]

[SWIFT, Jonathan] Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. By Lemuel Gulliver. With a preface by Henry Craik, and one hundred illustrations by Charles E Brock. London: Macmillan, 1894. Crown octavo. First UK printing of this illustrated edition. pp. xxx, 381, [1], [1 (Cranford Series)]. Original green cloth with the elaborate gilt designs to the upper cover and spine; dark green endpapers. Previous owner’s inscription on front endpaper. All edges gilt. A very attractive copy.
First printing of Brock’s illustrated edition of the satirical utopian Anglo-Irish novel, one of the most sought editions in Macmillan’s celebrated “Cranford” series. Along with Hugh Thomson and Chris Hammond, Brock was one of the late Victorian artists sought for his elegant line style for popular gift editions of classic texts. The delicacy of his lines are still visible in the gilt design on the upper cover of this book, capturing a depth and nuance rarely achieved in bindings of this kind.