A Collection of Forty-Eight Views of Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Seats, Towns, Castles, Churches, Monasteries, and Romantic Places in North and South Wales, Principally from Drawings by Sir Richard Colt Hoare, and Engraved by the Most Eminent Artists.

A Collection of Forty-Eight Views of Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Seats, Towns, Castles, Churches, Monasteries, and Romantic Places in North and South Wales, Principally from Drawings by Sir Richard Colt Hoare, and Engraved by the Most Eminent Artists.

Sir Richard Colt Hoare

Eminent Artists [M. Griffith delt; J. Ingleby delt; T. Sandby invt & delt; Sir Richd C. Hoare delt; John Carter delt; W.C. Wilson sculpt, W. Watts sculpt; Wm Byrne sculpt; James Basire sculpt]

delt = drawing artist
invt = invetor
sculpt = carver/engraver, usually of wood blocks in the 19th century

[London]: Published by John and Josiah Boydell / Cheapside: and at the Shakespeare Gallery, Pall-Mall

[1806]

These brown leather covers have the texture of goat skin of the "Russian" variety, but true Russian-imitation goatskin has a smell, and this book does not. And, some of the wear is reminiscent of sheep skin. The edges of the book have four borders: five gilt lines of different widths and dots, an ivy leaf-like scroll, two black-filled lines of different widths, and a floral scroll that is black filled. The central design is a centerpiece and 4-corners gilt stamped design that was pressed deeply into the covers. The 4-corners design is a large club-shaped floral and scroll that is connected by either two or three lines with one another while the central vignette are two people standing at the open door of a cathedral. The spine has been manufactured to have four large raised bands heavily decorated with a gilt and black-filled line or rope design. The second compartment has a version of the title in gilt while the other compartments have a heavy scroll design filling the entirety of the available space.
The endpapers look like blue-gray construction paper while the square (area showing of the cover that extends beyond the textblock) has a narrow gilt stamped zig-zag line. The edges of the textblock were painted with gold leaf.
Half of the book is plates of buildings throughout England with the facing page being identification details about the site. The plates are on a thicker paper that are foxed, but still look white, while the paper used for the information is thinner and has darkened to a light brown color. The ink from the plates have off-bled to their facing pages, or when several plates are included for each site, to the back of the upcoming plate.
Some of the plates show visible plate marks (one of the ways you can identify a cooper-plate engraving), as in the first photograph where you can see a slightly dark line between a quarter of an inch and a full inch from the edge of the illustration. When looking at the book, this slightly dark line shows up as a bump in the paper providing an outline of the plate when the paper was pressed against it. It is possible therefore that the plates without a plate mark were engraved on a wood block, but without expert analysis a definite answer is not possible.
Each illustration has two names underneath identifying the men who were involved in the creation of the design, while publication details are printed below the name of the site. The dating of the book is taken from these publication details as no publication date is provided on the title page. The plates were produced over a period of fourteen years from 1792-1806.
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Sir Richard Colt Hoare was born to a baronetcy in Wiltshire, England and became the first local historian of his county. His family was in banking and his education was geared toward his having a share in the family business, but in 1785 his young wife and grandfather died, the later leaving him the family estate. His grandfather stipulated he leave the bank so the house would not be lost in the event the bank failed.
Hoare spent the next six years travelling Europe. He became a travel writer before settling down, studying, and documenting the history and antiquarian sites of his home county.
Hoare lived from 1758-1838.

History / Art

SPECIAL DA730 .H65 1806

Hardcover book, 8.5 x 11 inches

English

This book has another record in the "Beautiful Books" Exhibit Collection.
This book can be seen in the photograph, Display Case 3.

Book