Views of Lansdown Tower, Bath. Favourite edifice of the Late William Beckford Esq
Maddox, Willes. English, Edmund Arthur
Bath and London. Edmund English and Thomas McLean. 1844
First edition - with hand-coloured plates - of the Views of Lansdown Tower.
Lansdown Tower - or Beckford's Tower as it is also known - was the last building project of William Beckford, undertaken after the sale of his home at Fonthill and his move to Bath in 1822. The tower commanded extraordinary views and when asked why Beckford found Lansdown and Bath so conducive after life at Fonthill, he replied: 'This! - this! - the finest prospect in Europe'. After Beckford's death the tower was sold to a publican who used it as storage until Beckford's daughter, the Duchess of Hamilton, bought it back before donating it to the Parish of Walcot. Beckford was reinterred in the tower grounds in 1844.
'So I am growing rich, and mean to build towers.' (William Beckford).
'Mr. Maddox executed the drawings for this work under Mr. Beckford's own eye - a sufficient gurantee for their artistic fidelity ... Perhaps he [the Reader] will feel that no language can do justice to a an object so unique, to a bijou so exquisite, as Lansdown Tower.' (Edmund Francis English writing in To The Reader, Bath, October 1st., 1844).
[Abbey Scenery 420].
Lansdown Tower - or Beckford's Tower as it is also known - was the last building project of William Beckford, undertaken after the sale of his home at Fonthill and his move to Bath in 1822. The tower commanded extraordinary views and when asked why Beckford found Lansdown and Bath so conducive after life at Fonthill, he replied: 'This! - this! - the finest prospect in Europe'. After Beckford's death the tower was sold to a publican who used it as storage until Beckford's daughter, the Duchess of Hamilton, bought it back before donating it to the Parish of Walcot. Beckford was reinterred in the tower grounds in 1844.
'So I am growing rich, and mean to build towers.' (William Beckford).
'Mr. Maddox executed the drawings for this work under Mr. Beckford's own eye - a sufficient gurantee for their artistic fidelity ... Perhaps he [the Reader] will feel that no language can do justice to a an object so unique, to a bijou so exquisite, as Lansdown Tower.' (Edmund Francis English writing in To The Reader, Bath, October 1st., 1844).
[Abbey Scenery 420].
pp. 10. Large folio. (635 x 452 mm). Hand-coloured mounted lithograph title, leaf with dedication to 'Her Serene Highness, the Princess Mary Emilia of Baden, and Marchioness of Douglas and Clydesdale' recto, list of 'Subjects and Vignettes' verso, leaf with list of subscribers, leaf with 'To the Reader' recto, facsimile note from Beckford verso, letterpress text with six large tinted lithograph vignettes and tipped-in note and 13 mounted hand-coloured lithograph plates on 12 sheets, each with pencil caption at lower left. All hand-coloured lithographs are printed on card and mounted to larger sheets. The illustrations are by C. J. Richardson after Willes Maddox. Original publisher's maroon straight-grained half-morocco, buckram boards, title gilt to upper board and spine, discreet repairs to spine and board corners, later brown cloth slipcase.
#42300
