Large quarto morocco leather BINDING with gilt-tooled fox pretending to be penitent while the cock reads the indictment for his crimes in gilt barock frame to cover and gilt barock floral centerpiece and gilt frame to lower cover with blind tooling (edges worn and sl.scuffing but gilt bright) 257pp. Margins of first few leaves foxed/stained, page 5/6 remargined and the plate following remargined to gutter edge and top edge, two other text pages remargined but in no case does this affect any printed areas not even the double ruled lines that enclose all the pages. There is some foxing as usual and some signs of use. The endpapers are embossed pale yellow but the edges show a bit of oxidization. *Includes plate at pg.45 which was later suppressed. Although not a pristine copy it is quite scarce, especially with the key register plate that was often removed by the binders and especially in this top of the range publisher's binding. *The fable of a cheating, lying fox who pretends remorse for his deeds and relies on a glib tonque and flattery to get him out of trouble but is finally brought to book for his misdeeds.