first edition
1754 · London
by Jackson, John Baptist
Lg. 4to. (11 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches, untrimmed). Pages 8-19 of the text browned with offsetting, seven (of eight) full-page plates printed in chiaroscuro tones, three of which are printed in bright oil colors, using at least six block each. The plates are occasionally spotted, and as Joan Friedman (Color Printing in England: 1486-1870) explains, "...they are printed in Jackson's later technique employing local color. Unfortunately, the oil based inks, the importance of which he stressed in the text, were not suited to the paper he used, and in all known copies the colors have spread and become blurred in the manner shown here [i.e. Plate II]." The plate selected by Ms. Friedman for her catalogue, "The Building and the Vegetable," is spotted not unlike ours. The plates in this copy are: Classical Bust (rectangular plinth), Hercules Standing, Peacock among Vegetation, Ruined Building and Vegetation, Classical Bust (round plinth), Building and the Vegetable, Standing Classical Figure (arm extended). The plate not present is that of a Lion.Copies of this scare book often turn with fewer than eight plates, and it may be presumed that they were issued this way. An English colleague recently catalogued a copy containing just five plates, with no visible sign that any leaves had been removed subsequent to publication. Ms. Friedman further writes, "...the illustrations...are of the utmost importance, for they are the first color book illustrations to have been printed in England since the Book of St. Albans...which remained an isolated example of color printing in England... for another 250 years."See: Friedman. pp. 4-7. J. Kainen. John Baptist Jackson. pp. 33-49, no. 53
(Inventory #: 3500.1754)