Books > Colour-Plate & Illustrated (172 items)
 
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ACKERMANN, Rudolph (1764-1834)

A History of the University of Oxford, its colleges, halls, and public buildings

London: L.Harrison and J.C.Leigh for R.Ackermann, 1814 [watermarked 1812-1814]. 2 volumes, large quarto (13 3/8 x 11 inches). Half-titles. 6pp. subscribers' list. Engraved portrait of Lord Grenville by Henry Meyer after William Owen, 114 hand-coloured plates (comprising 64 aquatint views [two with overslips] by J.Bluck, J.C. Stadler, D.Havell, F.C.Lewis, J.Hill and others after A.Pugin, F.Mackenzie, W.Westall, F.Nash and others, 17 line and stipple engraved plates of the costume of the members of the university by J.Agar after T.Uwins, 33 line, stipple and occasionally aquatint portraits of the founders). (Lacking the 6pp. subscribers' list from vol.I i.e. pp.[ix]-xiv). Later green morocco gilt by Morell, covers with elaborate border composed from gilt and blind fillets, a decorative floral roll and cornerpieces with a stylised floral spray on a sémé of small git dots, expertly rebacked to style, the spines in seven compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second and fourth compartments, the others with repeat decoration in gilt composed from various small tools, gilt turn-ins, yellow-stained edges. Provenance: Lionel Phillips (armorial bookplates, dated 1905).

An excellent copy, with pre-publication watermarks and clean bright early impressions of the plates. One of the great aquatint viewbooks, this work is a pre-requisite for any serious collection of English topographical colour-plate books.

Abbey records different states for eight of the plates. In the present copy Abbey's plates 39, 50 and 78 are in their first state, the remainder are all in their second states. The views, mostly after Pugin and Mackenzie, depict all of the most famous Oxford colleges. As with Ackermann's complementary work on Cambridge, each of the plates is enlivened by some detail of contemporary life. These `asides', generally showing members of the university or citizens of Oxford, serve both as points of interest in the plates, and as indicators of the scale of the buildings depicted. An unlooked-for by-product of this fine detailing is that it encourages the viewer to examine each plate with great care: what exactly is being prepared for dinner in the kitchen of Christ Church (see plate facing p.76, vol.II). The costume plates by Agar after Uwins have the appearance of being portraits of individuals (rather than clothes with generalized faces attached) and are also very fine.

The text, understandably overlooked when competing for attention with the plates, repays careful study. College by college the author gives details of the founders, the names of subsequent benefactors together with their contributions. The physical descriptions of the colleges are next, and include details of the colleges greatest treasures: pictures, sculpture, books, etc. The college descriptions conclude with the names, dates and details of their presidents, together with similar notes on famous alumni. After these follow notes on the university halls, public buildings including the Radcliffe and Bodleian libraries, Ashmolean museum and the Physic garden. The text concludes with notes on the members of the university

Abbey Scenery 278; Tooley 5.

#23119$6,000.00
 
 
ADAMS, Ansel Easton (1902-1984)

Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras

San Francisco: [letterpress printed by the Grabhorn Press] Jean Chambers Moore publisher, August 1927. Quarto (13 x 10 1/4 inches). [6]pp. of quarto letterpress (p.[1] title with an armorial vignette printed in blue and gilt, p.[2] printing details, including limitation, p.[3] dedication to Albert M. Bender, p.[4 blank], p.[5] 'Plate Titles', p.[6 blank]); 18 'parmelian' or gelatin silver-print photographs, printed by Ansel Adams on 'parchment' paper (the images measuring 5¾ x 7¾ inches, the sheets measuring 10 x 12 inches). Each photograph with a letterpress title printed in the margin beneath, and each photograph tipped into a folded folio sheet (13 x 10 1/4 inches when folded), with a more detailed letterpress caption. . First 6pp. stitched, otherwise unbound as issued, now all within a later black cloth portfolio in the style of the original, blocked in gilt with the title on the upper cover, golden shot-silk liners and flaps, with the original black cloth upper cover also laid in. Modern half black morocco box. Provenance: inscribed "Ansel Adams / San Francisco / 4-9-80" on dedication leaf.

An inscribed copy of this classic of western photography probably limited to no more than about 75 copies: a landmark work in twentieth-century photography and in the career of Ansel Adams, containing beautiful images of Yosemite and the Sierras.

Parmelian prints of the High Sierras is Adams' first published portfolio, and contains a number of his best known images. The phrase "Parmelian prints" was constructed by the publisher and used in preference to, say, "Photographic prints" in an effort to raise Adams' work above the level of the standard silver gelatin prints. Adams was evidently very happy with the results, writing to his wife "My photographs have now reached a stage when they are worthy of the worlds critical examination. I have suddenly come upon a new style which I believe will place my work equal to anything of its kind."

Ansel Adams (1902-1984) was born in San Francisco and first visited Yosemite in 1916. He returned the following year with photographic equipment, and beginning in 1919 he was the custodian of the Sierra Club's headquarters in Yosemite for four years. Adams spent these years hiking and photographing Yosemite and the Sierras. He published his first photographic prints in 1921 and worked to develop a realistic quality in his images, though he still planned on a career as a pianist. Adams' career as a photographer took a quantum leap in 1926 when the San Francisco businessman and philanthropist Albert Bender encountered his work and suggested that they should published in a portfolio. Bender arranged for Jean Chambers Moore to publish the work, and for Edwin and Robert Grabhorn, of whom Bender was also a patron, to produce the necessary letterpress text.

Within hours, Bender had sold fifty-six of the portfolios, and eventually a contract was drawn up which specified that 150 portfolios should be produced (this is the figure printed in the limitation information on the verso of the title). In the event, only about one hundred sets of the prints were completed by Adams but some were destroyed in a warehouse fire, and a total of only approximately seventy-five portfolios were offered for sale. Adams printed his images on Kodak Vitava Athena Grade T Parchment, a cream-colored, gelatin silver paper that is translucent when held up to light. This translucency, together with the wide tonal range give the whole series a captivating ethereal quality. Included among the prints are some of Adams' most iconic images, including the majestic "Monolith: the face of Half Dome", and pictures of "El Capitan" and "The Sentinel".

The prints (with the detailed titles taken from the folded folio leaves) are:

1) "Sierra Junipers / Upper Merced Basin / Yosemite Valley"
2) "The Abode of Snow / From Glacier Point / Yosemite Valley"
3) "Monolith: / The Face of Half Dome / Yosemite Valley"
4) "From Glacier Point / Yosemite Valley"
5) "On the Heights / Yosemite Valley"
6) "A Grove of Tamarack Pine / Near Timber Line"
7) "Mount Galen Clark / Yosemite Park"
8) "Mount Clarence King / Southern Sierra"
9) "Roaring River Falls / Kings' River Canyon"
10) "Marion Lake / Southern Sierra"
11) "El Capitan / Yosemite Valley"
12) "Banner Peak / Thousand Island Lake / Central Sierra"
13) "Mount Brewer / Southern Sierra"
14) "Kearsarge Pinnacles / Southern Sierra"
15) "The Sentinel / Yosemite Valley"
16) "Lower Paradise Valley / Southern Sierra"
17) "East Vidette / Southern Sierra"
18) "Cloud and Mountain / Marion Lake, Southern Sierra"

Grabhorn Bibliography 95.

#20904$110,000.00
 
 
[ALEXANDER, William (1767-1816)]

Picturesque Representations of the Dress and Manner of the Austrians. Illustrated in fifty coloured engravings, with descriptions

London: printed for John Murray by W. Bulmer & Co, 1814 [plates watermarked 1811]. Quarto (9 1/4 x 6 3/8 inches). 50 hand-coloured aquatint plates by William Alexander. Expertly bound to style in half black straight-grained morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, the flat spine divided into six compartments by double gilt fillets, lettered in gilt in the second compartment. Provenance: E. Burgoyne (early signature).

A spectacular survey of the costume of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The geographic range is greater than the title would signify to the modern reader: there are images drawn from all parts of Austria proper, from Hungary, Scavonia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Croatia, Moravia and elsewhere. The artist generally concentrates on the peasant classes, usually showing them in their distinctive regional best.

Cf. Colas I, 78; cf. Lipperheide Ea 26; Tooley 375

#23240$1,400.00
 
 
[ALEXANDER, William (1767-1816)]

Picturesque Representations of the Dress and Manner of the English. Illustrated in fifty coloured engravings, with descriptions

London: printed for John Murray by W. Bulmer & Co, '1814' [but later, plates watermarked 1819]. Quarto (9 3/8 x 6 3/8 inches). 50 hand-coloured aquatint plates by William Alexander. Expertly bound to style in half black straight-grained morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, the flat spine divided into six compartments by double gilt fillets, lettered in gilt in the second compartment. Provenance: E. Burgoyne (early signature).

A fine copy of this fascinating work.

This extraordinary work covers a huge range of social types from 'The Sovereign' to a chimney sweep, a judge to the licensed man that watered and fed the horses pulling the hackney carriages. The images and related text on the lower classes in general and the street vendors in particular are probably the most interesting. They picture and describe people who do not appear in conventional histories of the period, and offer a window into real life on the streets at the beginning of the 19th century. Colas notes that the plates are engraved from earlier images by William Henry Pyne, presumably those published in his The Costume of Great Britain (London: 1804, 60 plates). Pyne's work was evidently a major source for this work, as a comparison of the titles to the plates shows, but there are also a significant number of military subjects that are not in Pyne's work, suggesting a variety of sources. The plates have been executed with a refreshing liveliness and freedom that is not usually seen in books of this type, but which is typical of William Alexander's etched and engraved work.

Colas II, 2357; Lipperheide Gca 21; Tooley 374.

#23241$1,500.00
 
 
ALEXANDER, William (1767-1816). - Thomas M'LEAN (publisher).

Picturesque Representations of the Dress and Manners of the English

London: printed for Thomas M'Lean by Howlett & Brimmer, [No date, but text watermarked 1825; plates 1823 and guard leaves 1821]. Small quarto (9 7/16 x 7 inches). 50 hand-coloured aquatint plates after William Alexander. Original marbled paper-covered boards, expertly rebacked and recornered to style with red straight-grained morocco, original publisher's letterpress title label on paper mounted on upper cover, spine gilt.

A fine copy of this beautiful work.

This extraordinary work covers a huge range of social types from 'The Sovereign' to a chimney sweep, a judge to the (licensed) man that watered and fed the horses that pulled the hackney carriages. The images and related text on the lower classes in general and the street vendors in particular are probably the most interesting. They picture and describe people who do not appear in conventional histories of the period, and it offers a window into real life on the streets at the beginning of the 19th century.

Tooley 374.

#21314$1,200.00
 
 
ALEXANDER, William (1767-1816). - Thomas M'LEAN (publisher).

Picturesque Representations of the Dress and Manners of the Russians.

London: printed for Thomas M'Lean by Howlett & Brimmer, [No date, but text watermarked 1825; plates 1823 and guard leaves 1821]. Small quarto (9 9/16 x 7 inches). 64 hand-coloured aquatint plates after William Alexander. Original marbled paper-covered boards, expertly rebacked and recornered to style with red straight-grained morocco, original publisher's letterpress title label on paper mounted on upper cover, spine gilt.

A fine copy of this beautiful and wide-ranging survey of the folk costume of the peoples that made up the Russian empire at the end of the 18th century.

Very fine colour aquatint plates depicting the costume of the Russian Empire. Plates 1-17 are of the Finns and Laplanders; numbers 18-35 of the Tartars; 36-50 of the Samoyeds and 51-64 of the Kalmuk, Mongols and others.

Colas 2359; Hiler & Hiller p.16; cf. Lipperheide Kaa 32 (1814 issue).

#21317$1,500.00
 
 
ALKEN, Henry Thomas (1785-1851)

Illustrations to Popular Songs

London: published by Thomas M'Lean, Repository of Wit and Humour, 1825. Oblong folio (9 7/8 x 14 1/8 inches). Letterpress title (verso blank), 1p. "address" with publisher's advertisement beneath (verso blank), otherwise engraved throughout: hand-coloured engraved frontispiece and 42 hand-coloured engraved plates, each within a pale wash border, all by Alken. Expertly bound to style in red/brown half morocco over contemporary marbled paper-covered boards, contemporary red morocco title label on upper cover lettered in gilt, the flat spine divided into six compartments by single gilt fillets, yellow glazed endpapers.

First edition, third issue: a fine copy of this evocation of Regency England.

The first isssue of this work was published in 1822, a second in 1823 and the present in 1825. Each print is made up of from two to six vignette scenes, each scene illustrating in a humourous fashion a single line from a popular song of the day. It is not surprising that a number of the images are of hunting, shooting and horses, but also included are scenes from domestic life of all classes, fashion, town and country life, military and naval life, etc. The publisher describes the genesis of this work in the introduction: "'Swans sing before they die --- 'twere no bad thing / 'Should some folks die before they sing.' "So whispered a friend to Mr. Alken, when they were once compelled to hear the discordant notes of a volunteer at a convivial party. 'I wish it were so,' said the Artist, 'but the words of the Song furnish a good subject for a Sketch,' and he soon presented his friend with the Illustration of 'Begone Dull Care,' this was much approved of, and became the first 'Symptom' of the 'Illustrations of Popular Songs,' a Work intended to furnish the Amateur of the Fine Arts, and of Singing, with characteristic representations of his favourite subjects, that he may have the pleasure of beholding the Poet's fancy, embodied by the glowing warmth of the Artist's fertile imagination."

The artist Henry Thomas Alken was born into what became an artistic dynasty. He studied under the miniature painter J.T. Barber and exhibited his first picture (a miniature portrait) at the Royal Academy when he was sixteen. From about 1816 onwards he "produced an unending stream of paintings, drawings and engravings of every type of field and other sporting activity. He is best remembered for his hunting prints, many of which he engraved himself until the late 1830s ... To many, sporting art is 'Alken', and to describe his work or ability is quite unnecessary" (Charles Lane British Racing Prints pp.75-76).

Not in Abbey; cf. Schwerdt IV, p.4 (1822 edition with 40 plates); cf. Tooley 37 (1822 issue, noting four subsequent issues).

#22745$2,100.00
 
 
ALKEN, Henry Thomas (1785-1851)

Symptoms, of being amused

London: published by Thos. McLean, 1822. Oblong folio (10 5/16 x 14 3/8 inches). 1p. letterpress "Symptoms of a Preface", otherwise engraved throughout. Engraved title with hand-coloured vignette, 41 hand-coloured plates, all by Henry Alken. Contemporary green half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, the upper cover with onlaid green morocco label titled in gilt within a decorative border, the spine in five compartments with double raised bands, the space between the bands with a gilt fillet, lettered in gilt in the second and fourth compartments.

A fine unsophisticated copy of this best-selling collection of Alken's work.

The interesting 'Symptoms of a Preface' leaf (not mentioned by either Schwerdt or Tooley) is in effect an advertisement for the second volume of the Symptoms (which only got as far as a further 18 plates). The preface also mentions other similar works that Alken was undertaking, and jokingly offers the book combined with convivial company as a sterling cure for "Dull Care".

The work as a whole offers a window onto a certain Regency social milieu: fashionable and middle class sporting England. The humour is aimed at them with the understanding that they will be the most likely purchasers.

Tooley 57; Schwerdt I, p.27.

#23422$2,000.00
 
 
ALLEN, John Fisk (1785-1865)

Victoria Regia; or the Great Water Lily of America. With a brief account of its discovery and introduction into cultivation: with illustrations by William Sharp, from specimens grown at Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Boston: printed and published for the author by Dutton & Wentworth, 1854. Folio (27 5/8 x 21 1/4 inches). Letterpress title (verso blank), 1p. dedication to Caleb Cope (verso blank), 12pp. text (numbered [5]-16); 1p. index, plate list, note and errata (verso blank). The text printed in gold throughout. 6 chromolithographed plates by Sharp & Sons of Dorchester, Mass.(5 after William Sharp, 1 after Allen). Early half calf over purple pebble-grained cloth covered boards by F. Sissons of Worksop, England (with their label on the front pastedown), with contemporary red morocco gilt title label on the upper cover.

A monument to American colour printing, a work which launched the age of chromolithography as an art in the United States, and one of the most beautiful flower books ever produced. This an extraordinary copy with the text printed in gold throughout, believed to have been done for presentation and known only by Allen's own copy.

The Victoria Regia; or the Great Water Lily of America, provides an appropriate showcase for this gigantic water lily, first discovered along the Amazon River and then taken to Britain for cultivation. The so-called "vegetable wonder" was first described by Sir R.H.Schomburg in 1837. From the details he gave, the botanist John Lindley suggested that the lily was a new genera and put forward the name Victoria Regia in honour of Queen Victoria during the first year of her reign. "The giant water-lily is a spectacular flower; nineteenth century commentators describe with amazement the vast dimensions of its floating leaves, which could exceed two meters in diameter, and its great white flower, which opened in the evening and closed again at dawn in a truly lovely spectacle" (Oak Spring Flora.).

In 1853, Allen, a well-respected horticulturalist and author of a treatise on viticulture, cultivated a seed from the water-lily given him by Caleb Cope, president of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, and the man in whose garden the water-lily first flowered in America on 21 August 1851. Working at his home in Salem, Massachusetts, Allen tended the seed from January to July, when, on the evening of July 21st, the flower finally bloomed. Motivated by his success, Allen hoped to make the glory of the water-lily available to a wider audience, and engaged the services of William Sharp, a British-born artist and pioneer of chromolithography then working in Boston.

Sharp had been practicing with the new technique of chromolithography as early as 1841, the first person to do so in the United States. His early efforts can be seen in Mattson's The American Vegetable Practice (1841), but, as McGrath states, those chromolithographs are merely "passable." Fortunately, Sharp improved his technique, and his next major project, the plates for Hovey's The Fruits of America (1852), demonstrated to all who viewed them the colourful and dramatic potential of chromolithography. Still, the process was in its infancy, and it would take a work of tremendous ambition to satisfactorily popularise the technique.

Allen's proposed book on the water-lily provided such a vehicle. Though the first plate of the Victoria Regia is based on a sketch Allen composed himself, the remaining five plates, which show the gradual development of the flowers from bud to full bloom, are wholly attributable to Sharp. Superlative in concept, colour, and execution, they became the first benchmark of the art. "In the large water lily plates of Victoria Regia, Sharp printed colors with a delicacy of execution and technical brillance never before achieved in the United States" (Reese, Stamped with a National Character).

This extraordinary copy of the great work has the text printed in gold throughout. The only other comparable copy which we have been able to locate is recorded in the 5 May 1913 Annual Report of the Essex Institute (now part of the Peabody Essex Museum): "From the estate of Misses Elizabeth C. and Marion C. Allen of this city the Institute has received Mr. John Fisk Allen's own copy of his finely illustrated monograph on the 'Victoria Regia' which was printed in gold ink." That the author's own copy was similarly printed in gold suggests that such copies were of a very special nature, and were probably produced for presentation. While the provenance of this copy is unknown, given the contemporary English binding, it seems likely that this copy had been sent to England by Allen to a botanist as esteemed as Joseph Hooker, Joseph Paxton, or another as intimately involved in the cultivation of the famed water lily.

Great Flower Books (1990) p.69; Hofer Bequest 72; Hunt Printmaking in the Service of Botany 56; Nissen BBI 16; Reese Stamped with a National Character 19; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 85; Tomasi An Oak Spring Flora 106.

#22037$75,000.00
 
 
ALLEN, Mrs. [G. L.]

The Views and Flowers from Guzerat and Rajpootana

London: Paul Jerrard and Son, [circa 1860]. Large 8vo (10 1/2 x 7 inches). Title and text printed in red, 1p. publisher's advertisement in gilt in rear, hand-colored lithographed floral frontispiece, 12 hand-colored lithographed full-page illustrations (6 views and 6 botanical arrangements). Publisher's green cloth, upper cover heavily tooled in gilt, rear cover with a repeat decoration in blind, glazed yellow endpapers (minor soiling and wear).

Rare colour plate book illustrating views and flowers of northwestern India, finely produced by gift book publisher Paul Jerrard.

This rare gift book illustrated with colour plates depicts the native flowers and scenery of colonial India. The author's husband, the Rev. G. L. Allen, was a chaplain in the region around Deesa and Mount Aboo. Mrs. Allen's text, printed in red, alternatively describes exotic Indian flowering plants and significant local sites that would have been of interest to British travelers.

The botanical plates consist of a floral spray frontispiece, "Mountain Ebony or Banhinia," "Karbee/Wild Flower," "White Elephant creeper and yellow hibiscus," "The Jungle Tree, Torri and Iron Tree," "The Jungle Tree, Seymal and Wild Pomegranate," and "The Ink Tree & Stramonium." The six plates of scenery comprise "The Nukki Talao," "The Aboo Lawrence School," "The Aboo Burial Ground", "The Aboo Church", "Sercaze" and "The Shah Baugh or Royal Garden."

Theakstone, p. 2. Not in Nissen or Abbey.

#24608$6,500.00
 
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