VIDAL, Emeric Essex.
Picturesque illustrations of Buenos Ayres and Monte Video, consisting of twenty-four views: accompanied with descriptions of the scenery, and of the costumes, manners, &c. of the inhabitants of those cities and their environs.
London, R. Ackermann (printed by L. Harrison), 1820. Elephant 4to (36.5 x 30 cm). With 24 unnumbered hand-coloured aquatint plates, including 4 folding, all drawn by Vidal and executed by G. Maile, T. Sutherland, G. Bluck and D. Havell. 20th-century gold-tooled, black morocco. XXVIII, 115 pp.
€ 18,000
First printing of beautiful hand-coloured aquatint views of Argentina, all conceived and drawn from life by Emeric Essex Vidal in the years 1816 to 1818, accompanied by descriptions of the scenery, costumes and habits of the peoples and regions depicted. The plates were executed by various engravers between May and October 1820 and first issued in 6 monthly parts. 750 copies, including the present, were issued in Elephant 4to format. There was also an issue in Atlas folio and apparently a reprint in large and small 4to, still dated 1820, not normally distinguished in the literature from the present first printing (Palau and Sabin describe the work as a folio, but the Elephant 4to is often described as a folio). Tooley notes "the importance of its subject" and describes this publication as "the only notable colour plate book in English dealing with the Argentine".
With the red leather Beeleigh Abbey armorial bookplate of William Alfred Foyle (1885-1963). With two stitching holes from the previous binding in the margins. With old folds in some of the folding plates and occasional minor browning, but still in very good condition and largely untrimmed, with most deckles intact. With a tiny tear in the morocco of one corner but binding otherwise fine. First printing of beautiful views of life in Argentina in the period 1816 to 1818. Abbey, Travel 698; Palau 363371; Sabin 99460; Tooley 495.
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