The History of the Abbey Church of St. Peter's Westminster, Its Antiquities and Monuments..

1812. London: R. Ackermann, 1812.

2 vols, large 4to, [i-xx], [1]-330 including appendix, [6, index]; [i-iv], [1]-275, [1, blank],[4, index]pp. 83 plates in all, viz: 1 plan and 1 portrait both uncolored, 1 colored line engraving and 80 full-page aquatints. Old half red morocco, rebacked preserving original gilt-pannelled backstrip, marbled sides and endpapers, top edges gilt, bookplates. Binding worn at extremities with small losses to marbled paper, internally very good with portrait offset onto title page, some browning and scattered foxing but with plates and margins generally clean.

ß First edition, large-paper copy with the portrait of William Vincent on India paper. A respectable copy of this important color plate book. The first plate in the second volume "Aymer de Valance" is in the first state (signed "Mackenzie"), which suggests a first issue copy (see Abbey). Altogether there are 83 plates by 16 different artists including Mackenzie, Pugin, Villiers, Bluck and others. The depiction of light through the stained glass windows and slanted across the cathedral's monuments is particularly lovely. "There is no doubt that Ackermann considered Westminster Abbey the supreme example of his taste and achievement" (Ford, Ackermann 1783-1983, p.41). Abbey, Scenery, 213. Tooley's English Books with Colored Plates, 2.