COX (David):

The Young Artist's Companion or Drawing Book of Studies in Landscape Painting. With Thirteen Coloured Plates.

London: S. and J. Fuller, 1825 Oblong folio, 262 x 213 mms., pp. 15 [16 blank], engraved coloured frontispiece and 12 other coloured plates at end of volume, 39 uncoloured plates, 12 aquatint plates, contemporary half roan, marbled boards (very worn), leather label on front cover; previous bookseller's note stating "Replacement title/ Lacking one Plate," plates a bit soiled and foxed at extremities, front hinge broken with cover just holding on, a fair copy only, but he colour plates are fine. The artist and landscape painter David Cox (1783 - 1859) produced a number of manuals to teach drawing, so many in fact, that Stephen Wildman in his ODNB article on Cox affirms that the books were so influential that "they had the unforeseen consequence of training a whole generation of amateurs to imitate his style." His reputation had its ups and downs, but he was often compared to Constable and Turner. In the late 1850s there were several exhibitions of his works, leading the Art Journal to remark, "We have sometimes heard people say they cannot understand Cox [and] pity that they could not inhale the sweet breath of his hayfields and purple heaths, nor see the rushing of his summer showers, nor repose with him under the shadows of his thick umbrageous elms and his graceful ash-trees. Not understand Cox!, why there is hardly a peasant in the land who goes to his daily toil by the hedgerows, or in the fields, who could not thoroughly feel the truth and beauty of his landscapes."

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Book number: 9388

Catalogue: Art

Keywords: art painting prose

FENELON (Francois de Salignac de la Mothe):

Les Avantures de Telemaque, Fils d'Ulysse. Par seu Messire Francois de Salignac de la Mothe Fenelon.... Nouvelle Edition, Conforme au Manuscrit Original, Et enrichie de Figures en taille-douce.

A Amsterdam Chez J. Wetstein & G. Smith.... A Rotterdam, Chez Jean Hofhout, 1734. Large 4to, 282 x 218 mms., pp. [ii], x, xxvii [xxviii printer's ornament], 424, inclujding the suppressed "Ode" on pages 419 to 424 title-page in red and black with engraved vignette, engraved frontispiece by Picart after Folkéma, engraved portrait of Fenelon before first page of text, spectacularly illustrated with 25 full-page engraved plates, 24 engraved head-pieces by Bernaerts, Folkéma, V. Gunst and Surugue after Debrie, Dubourg and Picart, 22 engraved tail-pieces by Duflos and Schenk after Debrie and Dubourg, sumptuously bound in 19th century hard-grain red morocco, three gilt rules as borders on each cover, spine richly gilt in compartments, all edges gilt; some very slight wear to extremities of binding, but really a fine copy. The first Dutch editon of the Adventures of Telemachus was published in 1699. It was partially translated into English in 1699, and Tobias Smollett translated it again in 1776. Cohen-de Ricci 381-82; Ray 1; Brunet II, 1214; Graesse II, 564. The work was also printed in a folio format.

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Book number: 9183

Catalogue: Art

Keywords: art engraving LITERATURE

FERGUSON (James):

The Art of drawing in Perspective made easy To those who have no previous Knowledge of the Mathematics. The Second Edition. Illustrated with Plates.

London: Printed W. Strahan; and T. Cadell..., 1778. Tall 8vo, 219 x 126 mms., pp. xii, 123 [124 adverts], nine folding engraved plates, contemporary calf, black leather label (chipped); rear joint cracked (but firm), top and base of spine chipped, corners worn, spine a little dried. The inventor and lecturer James Ferguson (1710 - 1776) displayed an early interest in mechanical engineering by watching his father use a lever to raise a dilapidated cottage roof. He began making clocks and other mechanical objects in his teens. He published a book on the orrery in 1746, but the book that made his reputation and his fortune was Astronomy Explained upon Sir Isaac Newton's Principles and Made Easy for Those Who Have Not Studied Mathematics (1756). This was his last major publication, first published in 1775. Quoting large chunks of the work, the reviewer for The Critical Review in 1775 concluded, "The whole is delivered in that style of plainness and simplicity which cannot fail of rendering the book to such readers as have made little or not progress in this branch of science; a mode of writing the best calculated for diffusing general instruction, which Mr. Ferguson, in all his productions, has successfully endeavoured to promote."

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Book number: 8157

Catalogue: Art

Keywords: art technology prose

FORE-EDGE PAINTING. [SCOTT (Walter)]:

Historical Romances of the Author Waverley. The Monastery.

Edinburgh; Printed for Archibald Constable and Co. Edinburgh; and Hurst, Robinson and Co. London. 1822. 8vo, 210 x 130 mms., pp. [ii] [3] - 513 [514 blank], engraved title-page, contemporary calf, recently rebacked in lighter calf, black morocco label, all edges gilt, with a recent erotic/naughty fore-edge painting by Martin Frost of monks indulging in rather unliturgical activity. One volume of an 1822 reprint; the text begins with chapter 11 ("Two or three years glided on..." and finishes with the conclusion. Sold as an odd volume for the fore-edge painting.

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Book number: 9241

Catalogue: Art

Keywords: art erotica literature

GAINSBOROUGH. BELL (Mrs. Arthur):

Thomas Gainsborough A Record of his Life and Works. With Illustrations reproduced for the most part direct from the Original Paintings.

London: George Bell & Sons, 1897. FIRST EDITION. Large 4to (295 x 215 mms.), pp. xv [xvi blank], 150 [151 printer's imprint, 152 blank], photogravure frontispiece in sepia, 5 other photogravure plates in sepia, 52 full-page illustrations, original gilt-decorated cloth; corners worn, spine a little faded, but a very good copy.

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Book number: 3909

Catalogue: Art

Keywords: art performing arts prose women

GESSNER (Salomon):

Oeuvres de Salomon Gessner Traduits de l'Allemand.

A Zuric chez l'Auteur, 1777. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. Large 4to, 257 x 195 mms., pp. [xvi], 184; [3], 4 - 190, engraved title-page in each volume, separate engraved title-page in volume 1 for Contes Moraux, list of subscribers in volume 1, 10 full-page engraved plates in each volume, engraved head- and tail-pieces (39 in all) for each tale or section, early 19th century half calf, spotted boards (a little worn). A fine set, with very fresh impressions of the (often erotic) plates. The Swiss painter Salomon Gessner (1730-1788) began life as an apprentice to a bookseller in Berlin, seeming to follow in the footsteps of his father, a bookseller, printer, and publisher. This is certainly one of the most attractive editions of Gessner's works, even in a French translation. Gessner was responsible for choosing the illustrations, and the erotic overtones of many of the engravings perhaps enjoyed a more robust reception in this French translation. Copac locates a copy at the NLS in these islands, and there appear to be numerous copies in North America and Europe. Leemann-van Elck, Salomon Gessner, p. 113 and no. 539; Maler und Dichter der Idylle S. Gessner (1980), no. 88; Goedeke IV, 1, 82, 11; Rümann 329; Lanckoronska/Oehler II, 164; Cohen/de Ricci 432; Lonchamp 329. Not in Meyer.

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Book number: 7063

Catalogue: Art

Keywords: art translation literature

GILPIN (William):

An Essay on Prints. Third Edition.

London: Printed by G. Scott, For R. Blamire...Sold by B. Law..., 1781. 8vo, 179 x 117 mmx., pp. xiv [xv Contents, xvi blank], 244 [245 - 256 Index], contemporary calf, rebacked, red morocco label. With a handrawn bookplate dated 1789 and the name Matthew Asken below the word "Liberté" with a French shield above, on the front paste-down end-paper; and the bookplate of Mary Boshell on the recto of the front free end-paper. Gilpin (1724 - 1804) published this anonymously in 1768, and it was an immediate success. He revealed himself as the author in this third edition.

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Book number: 6424

Catalogue: Art

Keywords: art aesthetics prose

HARRIS (James):

Three Treatises. The First Concerning Art. The Second Concerning Music, Painting, and Poetry. The Third Concerning Happiness.

London: Printed by H. Woodfall, Jun. For J. Nourse...and P. Viallant..., 1744. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, 197 x 115 mms., pp. [iv,], 357 [358 blank], contemporary lightly speckled calf, gilt border on cover, raised bands between gilt rules on spine; front joint cracked, corners slightly worn, but a good copy, with the bookplate of Ian Richard Monins on the front pste-down end-paper. Harris (1709 - 1780) inherited a sum when his father died in 1731 that allowed him to pursue his aesthetic and philosophical interests, and this was his first major publication. The first two treatises are perhaps more interesting, or at least useful, for historians of aesthetics in the 18th century. However, the longest of the three treatises is the one on happiness, and it is perhaps no coincidence that there are echoes of Tomas Nettleton's Treatise on Virtue and Happiness published in 1742. Boswell records Johnson as having described Harris as a "prig, and a bad prig," but Boswell himself read the present work, particularly the section on happiness, describing it as "very sensible and accurate," and that he finished it "happier, and more disposed to follow virtue."

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Book number: 8771

Catalogue: Art

Keywords: art music prose

JOHN (W.). LISZT (Franz):

An oil portrait of Franz Liszt (1811 – 1886) in old age, probably made after his death, signed W. John.

Undated, but circa 1900. The painting measures 340 x 260 mms., the frame, 462 x 378. The painting was restored in May, 2011, by Julia Nagle, who records her work as follows: It was surface cleaned and the bottom edge was re attached using BEVA 371 heat seal adhesive and a warm spatula. The painting was then given a brush coat of MS2A cyclohexanone resin varnish. Losses were filled and then retouched with gouache base coats, followed by glazes of pure ground pigment in MS2A resin. The painting was given a final spray coat of MS2A resin varnish and photographed after treatment. It was refitted into its frame using brass strips. Losses on the frame were retouched with gouache, with the exception of small chip on the top of the frame.

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Book number: 7512

Catalogue: Art

Keywords: art music

LANIER (Nicholas):

Proue prime fatti a l'aqua forte da N. Lanier a l'eta sua giouenile di sessanta otto anni 1656.

[No place] [No Publisher] [c. 1825]. 231 x 147 mms., 31 full-page engraved plates (including the foxed first leaf functioning as title-page), 2 folding engraved plates, bound in early 19th century quarter roan, with "Lanier's Drawing Book 1656" tooled in gilt on spine, plain boards; first plate, with title foxed; many plates marked with "L" in corner area of plate, others arked with "V". This rare volume is comprised of engravings of the drawings of Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola), Giulio Romano, Lodovico Carracci and others. The engravings were made by Nicholas Lanier (1588-1666), who was an eminent art collector and musician in seventeenth-century England. The art historian Jeremy Wood translates the Italian title of the work, Proue prime fatti a l'aqua forte da N: Lanier a l'eta sua giouenile di sessanta otto Anni 1656, into English as "First proofs made in etching" by Nicholas Lanier "at his youthful age of sixty-eight". It is believed that in the early nineteenth century, around 1825, the engraved plates of the seventeenth century were used to create this volume of engravings; the paper in the volume appears to date considerably later than the seventeenth century. What appears to be unique about the present volume is that it seems to be an enlarged version, as it has twenty further plates than the previously known version, which, in each of the two known copies, has only eleven plates, all of which are work by one artist, Parmigianino. Of the eleven-plate version, OCLC says that the book "[c]onsists entirely of etchings from drawings by Parmigianino. The paper and binding both indicate that this is a nineteenth century reprint, possibly ca. 1825, from the original copper plates, with hand tooling on spine. Binder's title on spine: Lanier's drawing book, 1656" (OCLC number 10094746). The two copies of the eleven-plate version found by OCLC are at Stanford University and the University of Virginia. No copy of the book in any form is located in COPAC. The copy on offer appears to be unique, and fortuitously so, in containing twice as many plates as the previously-known issue and as containing multiple artists rather than merely one. The musician and art dealer Nicholas Lanier (1588-1666) was in Italy, specifically Venice, as early as 1610, as a diplomatic courier. "Immediately after the funeral of James I on 7 May 1625 Lanier was dispatched by the new king, Charles I, to Italy, to search out and purchase paintings for the enlargement of the Royal Collection. Through Daniel Nys, a French-born art dealer, agent, and entrepreneur, Lanier made contact with the duke of Mantua, Ferdinando Gonzaga, with a view to buying the extensive and celebrated Mantuan collection. The negotiations were long and tortuous and were not finally completed until 1628; the total price paid for this splendid collection was 68,000 scudi (then about £15,000). During this period Lanier made two separate visits to Italy, being based for the most part in Venice. At the end of his first trip he returned to England with his own portrait by Van Dyck (now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). As a result Van Dyck was invited to enter the service of King Charles. Lanier had already begun to collect drawings, both for himself and for his patron Lord Arundel, at a time when such pieces were considered valueless, and was the first to imprint on them a distinctive collector's mark" (Oxford DNB). Samuel Pepys in his diary entry for October 31, 1665, remarks on a visit to his home from Nicholas Lanier (spelling his name "Laneare") and praises his artistic eye. Pepys wrote: "Among other things, Laneare did, at the request of Mr. Hill, bring two or three [of] the finest prints for my wife to see that ever I did see in all my life". The early twentieth-century Pepysian editor G. Gregory Smith glosses the passage succinctly: "Nicholas Lanier (1588-1666) for a second time Master of the King's Music (1660). He was an art connoisseur, and had been commissioned by Charles I to purchase pictures, etc. in Italy for the Royal Collections. He wrote music for masques by Campion and Ben Jonson" (Diary of Samuel Pepys, London, 1905, p. 353). See Ian Spink's article "Lanier in Italy" in Music and Letters (1959); and Jeremy Wood's chapter, "Nicholas Lanier (1588-1666) and the Origins of Drawings Collecting in Stuart England", in Christopher Baker, Caroline Elam, and Genevieve Warwick, editors, Collecting Prints and Drawings in Europe, c. 1500-1750 (2003).

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Book number: 8008

Catalogue: Art

Keywords: art engraving prose

MONTAGNANI (Pietro Paolo)

Illustrazione Storico - Pittorica Con Incisioni Contorni delle Pitture nelle Stanze Vaticane di Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino accresciuta di sopran venti soggetti inediti Data alla Luce da Pietro Paolo Montagnani offerta A S. E. Sig. Principe Gagarin Inviato Straordinario, e Ministro Plenipotenziario di S. M. l'Imperatore di Tutte Le Russie.

Roma Presso La Santa Sede, Ec...., 1830. Large 4to, 283 x 207 mms., pp. vii [viii blank, ix floor plan, x - xi blank, xii lline-engraved ilkustration, 73 [74 imprints], 24 full-page line engravings, contemporary vellum (soiled), printed on thick paper, a very good copy with the bookplate of Samuel Gurney on the front paste-down end-paper. The engravings here came from the workshop of Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (1483 - 1520), known generally as Raffaello and reproduce the plan and all wall-paintings from the Sala di Costantino, painted by his workshop between 1520 and 1524.

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Book number: 9647

Catalogue: Art

Keywords: art engraving

MORLAND (George). DAWE (George):

The Life of George Morland, with Remarks on his Works.

London: Printed for Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe..., 1807. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [ii], viii, 238 [239 "Directions for Placing the Plates," 240 advert], engraved portrait frontispiece, engraved and printed title-pages, 6 engraved plates (only 3 are called for in "Directions for...Plates"), contemporary half plum morocco, red leather label, marbled boards (rubbed); front cover detached, rear joint rubbed, ex-library, with library bookplate (Art Association of Montreal: William John and Agnes Learmont Bequest) on front paste-down end-paper There are plates, "From an original drawing in the possession of Robt. Wedd Esqr.," opposite pages 193, 198, and 200 not called for in the list of plates, which mentions only those opposite pages 192 [sic, for 191], 196, and 212 (these also from Wedd).

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Book number: 4549

Catalogue: Art

Keywords: art biography prose

PERSPECTIVE.

The Art of Drawing in Perspective: Wherein the Doctrine of Perspective is clearly and concisely treated of, upon Geometrical Principles; and a Mechanical Method of Perspective and Designing invented, for the Benefit of such as are Strangers to Mathematics. Illustrated with Variety of Copper-Plate Figures. To which are annexed, The Arts of Painting upon Glass, and Drawing in Crayons; with Directions for making Crayons after the French and Italian Manner: Also the Art of Etching; and that of Japanning upon Wood, or any Metal, so as to imitate China; with Instructions for making Black or Gilt Japan Ware, both beautiful and light; and for making the hardest and most transparent Varnishes. And, to which is added, A Method of casting Amber in any Form whatever. The Sixth Edition.

London: Printed for J. Johnson..., 1779. 12mo, pp. iv, 92, folding engraved frontispiece, original marbled paper wrappers; fragile, with front cover and first four leaves detached, corners a bit crushed. The noted inventor James Ferguson (1710 - 1776) published The Art of Drawing in Perspective in 1775, but this is a different book. First published in 1755, it was republished several times, with some editions being much shorter. ESTC T153184 locates two copies only: BL and Harvard; all editions are uncommon.

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Book number: 7311

Catalogue: Art

Keywords: art geometry prose

ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS.

The Exhibition of the Royal Academy, M.DCC.XCIII. The Twenty-Fifth [1793]. [AND]. The Twenty-Sixth. The Twenty-Seventh. The Twenty-Eighth. The Twenty-Ninth. The Thirtieth. The Thirty-First. The Thirty-Second. The Thirty-Third. The Thirty-Fourth. The Thirty-Fifth. The Thirty-Sixth. The Thirty-Seventh. The Thirty-Eighth. The Thirty-Ninth [1807].

London: Printed by Joseph Cooper [1793 - 96]; Cooper and Graham [1797]; J. Cooper [1798 - 1799]; B M'Millan [1800 - 1807], 1793 - 1807. 4to, 247 x 187 mms., catalogues for 15 consecutive years, pp. 24 [25 - 32 list of exhibitors]; 22 [23 - 33 list of exhibitors, 34 blank]; 20 [21 - 26 list of exhibitors]; 23 [24 - 28 list of exhibitors]; 31 [32 - 38 list of exhibitors]; 35 [36 Members, 37 - 43 list of exhibitors, 44 blank]; 39 [40 Members, 41 - 47 list of exhibitors, 48 blank]; 40 [41 Members, 42 - 47 list of exhibitors, 48 blank]; 37 [38 Members, 39 - 45 list of exhibitors, 46 blank]; 41 [42 Members, 43 - 50 list of exhibitors]; 40 [41 Members, 42 - 48 list of exhibitors]; 41 [42 Members, 43 - 49 list of exhibitors, 50 blank]; 36 [37 Members, 38 - 44 list of exhibitors]; 35 [36 Members, 37 - 44 list of exhibitors]; 43 [44 Members 45 - 52 list of exhibitors], with contemporary annotations identifying sitters or places in years 1794, 1795, and 1796, a few other contemporary annotations in pencil, the contemporary autograph "G Rhodes" on title-page of first three catalogues, newly rebound in half calf, gilt spine, green morocco label, marbled boards; many leaves soiled, especially title-pages, last leaf of thirtieth catalogue repaired, small piece torn from upper margin of title-page of thirty-seventh, and with other evidence of the catalogues actually being used, but a good collection of an uncommon piece of ephemera. The Royal Academy of Arts was founded in December, 1768, with Sir Joshua Reynolds as its first president. Presumably its first exhibition catalogue was issued that year or in 1769; the second was certainly issued in 1770, though extant copies of that exhibition are on paper watermarked "1825." Copies of all early issues are uncommon. For example, ESTC T12724 for 1793 locates copies in the BL, and the National Gallery; Huntington, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Penn State (Pattee).

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Book number: 6591

Catalogue: Art

Keywords: art History prose