first edition Half Calf. Marbled Boards.
1815 · London
by Bowyer, Robert
London: T. Bensley, for R. Bowyer, 1815. First edition. Half Calf. Marbled Boards.. Very Good. Folio, 46 by 32 cm. 76 pp. Eighteen hand-colored aquatint plates, four of which are folding. One b/w map plate. Also bound in, in slightly smaller size, are two b/w plates bound in at front, showing in one, portraits of the top figures in France (the royal family, the Bonaparte family, generals and statesmen), and in the other, portraits of the top British personages (and of their allies), with a hand-written key of names of the cameos on the back. Abbey Life 352. The work is complicated bibliographically, with another title used by Bowyer, "The Triumph of Europe", and various plate counts, with most copies coming with fewer than the present volume. While this copy doesn't have the Porto Ferrajo plate, it is still arguably complete. Some scattered light to moderate soiling -- finger smudging mainly. Some flattened paper creases. Still, overall on the clean side, with the pictorial images of the plates bright. Later half-calf binding with light scuffs and a few stain spots but still attractive.
(Inventory #: 005305)