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Title A Picturesque Representation of the Manners, Customs, and Amusements of the Russians. |
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Published, Date James Carpenter ... and Josh Booker, London,1803-4. |
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Description Three parts in one volume folio (50.5 x 35.5 cm). Half title, frontispiece portrait by E. Scriven after G. Kugelgen, title of first part, [4] ll. dedications and prefaces, each part with own title and list of plates, 100 hand-coloured aquatint plates after Atkinson, each with text leaf in English and French; light spotting on a few leaves only. Near contemporary burgundy half-morocco over marbled boards, spine with raised bands ruled and lettered in gilt, gilt rules to covers. |
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Note Fine copy of the first edition of one of the most desirable English colour-plate books. "These plates [...] show the spontaneity and spirit possible when the artist is his own engraver. [...] The colouring is skilfully done, in soft washes" (Abbey). Many subjects are here dealt with for the first, and often only, time in a European publication. This is the second of Atkinson's works to be published after his return from St. Petersburg. He accompanied his uncle James Walker there when the latter had been appointed engraver to the Empress Catherine and had returned in 1801 after 18 years spent in Russia. Dedicated to Alexander I, whose portrait is in frontispiece. "Roskoshnoe khudozhestvennoe izdanie s prevoskhodnymi risunkami, ispolnennymi s natury angl. khudozhnikom Atkinsonom dolgoe vremya zhivshim v Rossii. Redka" (Solovev, marking it at 125 roubles in 1910). |
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References Abbey Travel 23; Bobins 180; Colas 171; Lipperheide 1343; Prideaux 318-19; Solovev Kat.105, 318 (125 rub.!); Tooley 72. |
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Stock Number 85597 |
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