Description of the new-found copy of Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense, 1855; private collection:

[Edward Lear] A Book of Nonsense. Proof copy for the second 1855 edition. Gray 19th-century [original?] cover, no title page, no publishing information. All 73 lithographed pictures which appeared in the second edition with transferred lithographed 5-line text presenting all the defects typical of this edition.
The first limerick is about “Derry Down Derry” – also appearing on the cover and title page in other copies: the illustration has the tuft of grass – which was not in the first 1846 edition – beneath the protagonist.
In this copy both illustrations for the “Old Man of the West” have the same verse, the one reading in the second line “Who never could get any rest,” as in some other copies; other proof copies have the text for the two pictures inverted, final publication has the correct verses for both pictures. See Royal Academy of Arts Catalogue, 1988, nos. 73a and 73b.

There are four unpublished manuscript limericks bound with the lithographed ones – three with illustrations – on paper watermarked 1856.

Here is the first of the manuscript limericks bound with the proof pages; it is inserted before the “Derry Down Derry” at the very beginning of the book. To me, the picture looks very similar to Lear’s early drawing style, but the handwriting is very unlikely to be his, though the lineation is typical of some Lear manuscripts; notice that in this case – but not in the others I will be posting – the text has been pasted on the picture, perhaps because as originally placed  it would not have allowed the page to be bound with the proof sheets.

There was an Old Man of Coblentz
The length of whose hair was immense
When they said “dont you shave” he responded “You rave[“]
This eccentric Old Man of Coblentz —

See previous post on the second edition of the Book of Nonsense.
Next limerick.