Liber fluviorum; or, river scenery of France

London: Henry G. Bohn, 1853. FIRST EDITION. Added engraved title page. With 61 steel-engraved plates by J.M.W. Turner. Contemporary blind-stamped pebbled cloth over thick boards, spine and edges a bit worn; marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. A beautiful, clean copy. First edition of the full version of Liber fluviorum. Turner’s illustrations and Ritchie’s text first appeared in slightly different forms between 1833 and 1835 in three volumes that came to be known as Turner's Annual Tours; the plates were reissued in 1837 as Rivers of France before this first printing of the full work. It was reprinted in 1857. The exquisite plates reflect the wonder of France and its rivers in the mid-nineteenth century, and Watts’ biography is one of the first after Turner’s death in 1851.