Author: KING (Daniel):
Title: The Vale-Royall of England Or, The County Palatine of Chester Illustrated. Wherein is contained a Geographical and Historical Description of that Famous County, with all its Hundreds and Seats of the Nobility, Gentry, and Freeholders; its Rivers, Towns, Castles, Buildings Ancient and Modern. Adorned with Maps and Prospects, and the Coats of Arms belonging to every individual family of the whole County. Performed by William Smith, and William Webb, Gentlemen. Published by Mr. Daniel King. To which is annexed, An Exact Chronology of all its Rulers and Governors both in Church and State, from the time of the Foundation of the Stately City of Chester, to this very day: Fixed by Eclipses, and other Chronological Characters. Also, An Excellent Discourse of the Island of Man; Treating of the island. Of the Inhabitants. Of the state ecclesiasticall. Of the civil government. Of the trade; and, of the Strength of the Island.
Description: London Printed by John Streater, in Little S. Bartholomews, and are to be sold at the Black-spread-Eagle at the west-end of Pauls 1656 FIRST EDITION. Folio, 270 x 170 mms., pp. [xii], 99, [7], 239, [11], 55, [7], 34, additional engraved title-page, trimmed to margin and laid down, double-page maps of Cheshire & The Isle of Man, double-page plan of Chester, 11 plates of Arms and 5 other folding or full-page plates, engraved illustrations, letterpress title rather soiled, backed with 1 letter restored, 1 double-page map and the plan with splitting along central fold, 1 plate trimmed, affecting caption at foot, occasional short marginal repaired tears, occasional soiling, damp-staining towards end, armorial bookplate on front paste-down end-paper, attractively bound in 18th century red morocco, gilt border on covers, spine ornately gilt to Greek motif in compartments, all edges gilt; some light wear to extremities but a very good copy, The work was in fact written by William Smith, William Webb and Samuel Lee, and the part devoted to the Isle of Man by James Chaloner. King only wrote the dedication and was the engraver of the plates.ODNB notes, "In 1656 King published in London The Vale-Royall of England, or, The County Palatine of Chester Illustrated, for which he wrote the preface. In it he printed for the first time two essays on Chester written by William Smith and William Webb more than forty years earlier, as well as an essay on the Isle of Man by James Chaloner. This book was illustrated with etchings mostly by Wenceslaus Hollar, which were unsigned and for this reason have often been attributed to King himself; the same is true of the one-sheet etching An Orthographical Designe of Severall Viewes upon the Road in England and Wales (c.1660), which, although published by King, is also by Hollar. This mistake has led to a gross overestimation of King's abilities as an etcher, which were decidedly modest. King also wrote a manuscript, 'Miniatura, or, The art of limning' (BL, Add. MS 12461), and translated Gerard Desargues's Universal Way of Dyaling, published in 1659."

Keywords: topography association copy prose


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