[Humor] Two extraordinary copies: (1) Josh Billings. Hiz Sayings.

With comic illustrations. New York, Carleton, 1866, 252,(2),8 p., with 12 woodengraved illustrations, original blindstamped cloth.

Poor copy, waterstained and falling apart, backstrip damaged. The (very) rare first edition, with HANDWRITTEN DEDICATION by the author on the reverse of the frontispiece: "This Book was rit just for fun, bi the Author. Yours tenderly, Josh Billings". Josh Billings, pseudonym of American comedian Henry Wheeler Shaw (1818-1885); (2) A history of caricature & grotesque in literature and art. By Thomas Wright (...). London, Virtue Brothers & Co., 1865, XVI,494,(2),32 (advert.) p., with 237 woodengraved illustrations, original blindstamped and gilt cloth. Boards loose with several pages at beginning and end; with pasted several newspaper clippings/ illustrations, almost certainly by Thomas Parkin, with his heraldic ex libris on free endpaper and annotation dated 1920 in pen on the half title: "This grangerized book is ex libris Walter Hamilton (...) and bears his autograph (initials) at the top of this page and also his bookplate [on inside front board, dated 1872]". With a HANDWRITTEN LETTER by Thomas Wright, pasted with margin (together with a few later clippings) on page V, in which he introduces and recommends Walter Hamilton: "My dear mr. l'Abbé, Let me have the pleasure of introducing to you a great friend of mine, Mr. Hamilton, the editor of one of our excellent periodicals entitles "Pro et Con" which is published here weekly (...)" (erroneously dated "July 20, 1784" [= 1884]) (total 2 extraordinary copies).