Picturesque Architecture in Paris, Ghent, Antwerp, Rouen &c
Boys, Thomas Shotter
London. Thomas Boys, Printseller to the Royal Family. 1839
Sold
A fine copy of Thomas Shotter Boys most highly regarded work and an early use of chromolithography.
The exceptional colour plates in the work - made clear in Boys' admiring dedication - were printed by Charles Hullmandel who made use of 'oil colours' or tints and called the process 'chromalithography'. The plates 'come from the press exactly as they appear' and give the viewer the impression of paintings, crayon or pencil sketches or watercolours as required. The work was admired enormously in its day (see review from the Art Union below) and prompted King Louis Philippe of France who was presented with a copy by the publishers to respond with the gift of a diamond ring.
The plates depict various towns in France (Dieppe, Arras, Laon, Abbeville, Rouen, Paris and Chartres) as well as Antwerp and Ghent, however, the majority of the plates (a total of fifteen) depict scenes in Paris.
'The Work is of exceeding beauty ... Our recommendation of it to all who love and can appreciate art cannot be given in terms too strong; it is worthy of the highest possible praise ... ' (Contemporary review in the Art Union, December 1839).
'A very beautiful book ... Apart from the brilliance, sensitivity, and technical mastery of the drawing on stone there is the great, and often underestimated, technical and artistic achievement of Hullmandel in making possible the transmission of such drawings, and in developing the cool, transparent, graduated tints, subtle in colouring, on which the unique effect of the book depends.' (Abbey).
[Abbey, Travel 33; Tooley 105].
The exceptional colour plates in the work - made clear in Boys' admiring dedication - were printed by Charles Hullmandel who made use of 'oil colours' or tints and called the process 'chromalithography'. The plates 'come from the press exactly as they appear' and give the viewer the impression of paintings, crayon or pencil sketches or watercolours as required. The work was admired enormously in its day (see review from the Art Union below) and prompted King Louis Philippe of France who was presented with a copy by the publishers to respond with the gift of a diamond ring.
The plates depict various towns in France (Dieppe, Arras, Laon, Abbeville, Rouen, Paris and Chartres) as well as Antwerp and Ghent, however, the majority of the plates (a total of fifteen) depict scenes in Paris.
'The Work is of exceeding beauty ... Our recommendation of it to all who love and can appreciate art cannot be given in terms too strong; it is worthy of the highest possible praise ... ' (Contemporary review in the Art Union, December 1839).
'A very beautiful book ... Apart from the brilliance, sensitivity, and technical mastery of the drawing on stone there is the great, and often underestimated, technical and artistic achievement of Hullmandel in making possible the transmission of such drawings, and in developing the cool, transparent, graduated tints, subtle in colouring, on which the unique effect of the book depends.' (Abbey).
[Abbey, Travel 33; Tooley 105].
Folio. (556 x 375 mm). Chromolithograph title, leaf with Boys' dedication to the printer Hullmandel, leaf with 'Descriptive Notice' and 'Description of the Subjects' (present three times) and 28 chromolithograph plates printed recto only on 25 sheets of thick card, each with guardleaf. Original publisher's red morocco-backed buckram boards, front board with elaborate red morocco detail heightened with gilt surrounding central red silk onlaid section with red morocco title vignette with elaborate decoration and title in gilt (the design taken from a corbel from St. Severin in Paris), title gilt to spine, yellow endpapers.
#39482
