Author: Linton, W J - Linton, H - Smythe, F J - Langton, R - Morton, R - Jewsbury, T S - Carbonneau, M - Facnion, M [illustrators]
Title: The Art Treasures Examiner - A Pictorial, Critical, And Historical Record Of The Art Treasures Exhibition, At Manchester, In 1857
Description: Alexander Ireland & Co, 22 Market Street Manchester & W H Smith & Son, 186 Strand, 1857, 1st edition. Half calf over silk, G+. viii+300pp, 2 chromolithographic frontis, b/w plan, 32 fulll page b/w engraved illustrations & 120+ b/w illustrations in the text, leather grubby & worn at the edges, glue? splash to the rar cover, some slight marking & staining to the contents, occasional offsetting, but generally a nice copy of an unaccountably scarce item. Hardback , no dustjacket. ¶ A bound copy of a weekly souvenier publication which was produced to mark the 1857 Art Treasures Exhibition which was held in Manchester. It remains the largest art exhibition ever to be held in the UK ( if not the World ) with over 16,000 exhibits. It attracted over 1.3 million visitors in the 142 days it was open. The two chromolithographs show the building - a temporary iron-and-glass structure similar to the Crystal Palace in London, 656 feet long and 200 feet wide, with one central barrel vault 56 feet wide. Its selection and display of artworks had a formative influence on the public art collections that were then being established in the UK, such as the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Keywords: art, exhibitions, victorian history, manchester