Description
ANTIQUITIES--A collection of 10 works on the antiquities and archaeology of the ancient world bound in 13 volumes, comprising:
STUART, James (1713-1788) and Nicholas REVETT (1720-1804). The Antiquities of Athens. Measured and Delineated. Volume II edited by William Newton (1735-1790), volume III by Willey Reveley (1760-1799), volume IV by Joseph Woods (1776-1864). London: 'printed by John Haberkorn' [vol. I], 'printed by John Nichols' [vols II-III], T. Bensley for J. Taylor [vol. IV], Priestley and Weale [vol. V], '1762' [vols I and III watermarked 1808]-1830. 5 volumes. Engraved portrait of Stuart by and after Charles Knight from vol. II mounted on flyleaf of vol. I as a frontispiece, engraved portrait frontispiece of Revett by Taylor after Ramsay in vol. IV, and engraved portrait frontispieces of Stuart and Revett by W.C. Edwards after Proven and Ramsay in vol. V. 367 engraved plans, measured drawings, and plates by J. Basire, C. Grignion, J. Newton, W. Skelton, et al. after Stuart, Revett, W. Pars, W. Reveley, et al., 3 double-page, 4 double-page folding, and 2 folding, double-page folding map of Greece hand-coloured in outline. Engraved title-vignettes, illustrations, and head- and tailpieces. 'Errata and Additional Observations' leaf at the end of vol. III. (Some variable browning and spotting, vol. I without the 3-leaf list of subscribers called for in the first edition, vol. V lacking half-title.) Blackmer 1617 (calling ?erroneously for 53 plates in vol. V); Brunet V, 570; Cicognara 2713; Fowler 340; Harris 857; Millard British 81.
[WOOD, Robert (1717-1771)]. The Ruins of Palmyra, otherwise Tedmor, in the Desart. London: [Robert Wood], 1753. 59 engraved plates and plans by P. Fourdrinier, J.S. Müller, T.M. Müller, and T. Major after G.B. Borra et al. 3 full-page engraved illustrations of inscriptions by J. Gibson. (Occasional light spotting, one plate trimmed, touching border.) FIRST EDITION, [?later] issue with p.5, l.28 reading 'Herenianus' and 7 errata on p.50. Cohen-De Ricci 916; Fowler 443; Harris 939; Millard British 92. [Bound with:] [R. WOOD.] The Ruins of Balbec, Otherwise Heliopolis in Coelosyria. London: [Robert Wood], 1757. 46 engraved plates and maps numbered I-XLVI [plate III on 2 sheets] by Fourdrinier and Major after Giovanni Battista Borra, 11 double-page folding. Engraved illustration of inscription. (Occasional light spotting, one plate trimmed.) FIRST EDITION. Berlin Kat. 1887; Blackmer 1835; Cohen-De Ricci 916; Fowler 444.
ADAM, Robert (1728-1792). Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia. [London]: the author, 1764. Engraved frontispiece by F. Bartolozzi and 60 engraved numbered plates on 53 leaves (numbered I-LXI including frontispiece), including 2 double-page, 11 double-page folding and one triple-page folding, by Bartolozzi, Zucchi, F. Patton, P. Santini, E. Rooker, A. Walker, D. Cunego, P. Mazell and J. Basire after Charles-Louis Clérisseau. (Occasional light spotting, a few plates trimmed touching border or number.) FIRST EDITION. Blackmer 3; Berlin Katalog 1893; Cicognara 3567; Fowler 2; Millard British 1.
LE ROY, Julien David (1724-1803). Les ruines des plus beaux monuments de la Grece. Paris: Louis-François Delatour for Musier Fils, 1770. 2 volumes in one. 61 engraved plates and plans by Le Bas et al. after Le Roy. Woodcut title-vignettes and tailpiece. (Occasional light spotting.) Provenance: E.H.E. D'Arcy (early inscription on title). SECOND, AUGMENTED EDITION, containing one more plate than the first edition of 1758. Brunet III, col.1003 (the second edition 'contient des changements, des augmentations considérables et une planche nouvelle'); Cohen-De Ricci 627.
WILKINS, William (1778-1839). The Antiquities of Magna Graecia. Cambridge: at the University Press by Richard Watts for Longman, Hurst, Orme and Rees, 1807. 73 engraved plates comprising 52 line-engravings of measured drawings, one double-page, and 21 sepia aquatint views. Engraved title-vignette and 14 engraved or aquatint plates and maps as head- and tailpieces and illustrations. (A little spotted.) FIRST EDITION. Abbey Travel 128; Blackmer 1797.
THE SOCIETY OF DILETTANTI. The Unedited Antiquities of Attica; comprising the Architectural Remains of Eleusis, Rhamnus, Sunium, and Thoricus. London: W. Bulmer and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, and John Murray, 1817. 75 engraved plates of measured drawings and views by G. Cooke et al. after William Gell et al. and 3 engraved maps and plans by J. Walker et al. after Gell and John P. Gandy. Half-title. (Occasional light spotting and offsetting.) FIRST EDITION. Blackmer 1569.
THE SOCIETY OF DILETTANTI. Antiquities of Ionia. London: printed by W. Bulmer and W. Nicol and sold by G. and W. Nicol, Payne and Foss, and Rodwell and Martin [vol. I] and W. Bulmer and Co. for George Nicol [vol. II], 1821-1797. Parts i-ii (only, of 5). 105 engraved maps, measured drawings, and plates by S. Porter, James Basire, John Roffe, et al. after William Gell, John P. Gandy, Francis Bedford, et al. (of 106, lacking part i, ch. 3, no. 2), one double-page, engraved title-vignettes and head- and tailpieces. (Variable, mainly marginal spotting, light offsetting from engravings onto text.) Second edition of part i ('extensively revised according to the findings of William Gell's expedition of 1811-1813', Millard) and first edition of part ii. Parts iii-v appeared in 1840, 1881, and 1915 respectively. Part i, chapter 3 contained 2 plates numbered II, and presumably the second of these was erroneously discarded by the binder of this copy. Millard British 80.
STANHOPE, John Spencer (1787-1873). Olympia; or, Topography Illustrative of the Actual state of the Plain of Olympia, and the Ruins of the City of Elis. London: Thomas Davison for Rodwell and Martin, 1824. Frontispiece and 11 engraved plates by George Cooke after F. Dewint after sketches by T. Allason and 2 double-page engraved maps by J. Cross after Allason, all on India and mounted. (Variable spotting and browning.) FIRST EDITION. Blackmer 1596. [Bound with:] ALLASON, Thomas (1790-1852). Picturesque Views of the Antiquities of Pola, in Istria. London: W. Wilson for John Murray, J. and A. Arch, J. Booth, and Colnaghi & Co., 1819. Engraved frontispiece by George Cooke after J.M.W. Turner after Allason's sketch and 9 engraved plates by W.B. Cooke, Henry Moses and Cosmo Armstrong after Allason, all on India and mounted. Engraved head- and tailpieces. Half-title. Blackmer 25; Brunet I, 188.
INWOOD, Henry William (1794-1843). The Erechtheion at Athens. Fragments of Athenian Architecture and a Few Remains in attica Megara and Epirus. London: William Nicol for James Carpenter and Son, Josiah Taylor, and Priestley and Weale, 1827. 34 etched outline plates by M.A. Nicholson et al. after Inwood, one double-page, 4 double-page folding, one triple-page folding. (Some spotting, a few plates trimmed.) FIRST EDITION, possibly early issue, with only one dedicatee (the Duke of Bedford), and erratically-numbered plates, including one numbered '18'. Blackmer 856 (quoting Crook: 'a major key to our understanding of Greek Revival architecture... valuable supplement to Stuart & Revett').
13 volumes, 2° (535 x 365mm). Uniformly bound in English early 19th-century red hard-grained morocco gilt by J. Wright, boards with broad borders of floral rolls and double and triple fillets, roll-tooled gilt turn-ins, spines gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-pieces in one or 2, others decorated with palmette and other tools, gilt edges (some light rubbing or scuffing, slight fading to spines). Provenance: Christopher Turnor, Stoke Rochford Hall, Lincolnshire (1810-1886, bookplates) -- Their Royal Highnesses Prince and Princess Michael of Kent (bookplates).
A FINELY-BOUND SET OF WORKS ON THE ANTIQUITIES AND ARCHITECTURE OF THE ANCIENT WORLD, FROM THE LIBRARY OF CHRISTOPHER TURNOR. This group of works is formed around the complete, 5-volume set of Stuart and Revett's The Antiquities of Athens, 'the first publication in English devoted to the Athenian monuments' (Blackmer). In 1748 Stuart and Revett conceived a work which would illustrate these monuments in accurate measured drawings, and when Revett wrote to his father from Rome on 6 January 1749, he spoke of a 3-volume work which would contain 191 plates, engraved by himself and Stuart, and estimated that the entire project, including a year in Greece, would take only 4 years to complete. In fact, the two artists arrived in Athens on 18 March 1751 and, beset by considerable difficulties, did not return to England until 27 October 1754. As Harris records (pp. 439-448), before even the appearance of volume I in January 1763, Revett, who provided the measured drawings, had sold out his interest to Stuart who, besides painting the views in gouache, had taken on responsibility for the text. Dilatory by nature, Stuart was also distracted by his rivalry with Le Roy (whose Les ruines des plus beaux monuments de la Grece, first published in 1758, is included in this set of works), and when he died on 2 February 1788, volume II was unfinished, even though a title-page dated 1787 had been printed. Due to the continued support of the Society of Dilettanti, volume III appeared in 1794, bringing to completion in nearly 50 years a project that was originally intended to make both artists a rapid fortune. Volume IV, a purely commercial venture by Josiah Taylor who had acquired all of Stuart's papers, was made popular by the large number of plates of the Parthenon sculptures, sold to the nation in 1816, the year of publication, and a further supplement was issued in 1830.
Robert Wood had befriended Stuart and Revett in Rome in 1749, and had encouraged them in their project and determined the high standards of accuracy that informed their investigations. Wood, accompanied by James Dawkins, John Bouverie and the Italian artist and architect Giovanni Battista Borra, left Rome for the Levant in 1750, where he travelled extensively, reaching the relatively unvisited sites of Palmyra and Balbec in 1751. He published his findings as The Ruins of Palmyra in 1753, and The Ruins of Balbec four years later. Both volumes were praised by Horace Walpole, and the plates of 'these unfamiliar sites were [an] important architectural source' (Blackmer). The next major book on ancient architecture to be published was Adam's report of his expedition to survey the previously unexplored site of the Emperor Diocletian's palace. The response of Adam and his draughtsman Clérisseau to the antique is described by Eileen Harris as '"pseudo-archaeological" in that it treated the physical remains of antiquity as touchstones for the imaginative and scenic, as opposed to deductive and architectonic, recreation of ancient buildings'. More of an artistic and picturesque survey, the work also offers an 18th-century understanding of architecture in William Robertson's introduction. The foundations established by these pioneers of the 18th century were built upon by the expeditions and publications of the early part of the following century, particularly those undertaken under the auspices of the Society of Dilettanti by Sir William Gell, William Wilkins and Thomas Allason.
This set of works spans the major English expeditions to describe the architecture of the ancient world from the time of Stuart and Revett to 1830, researches which informed late 18th-century architecture and the Greek revival during the Regency period (Wilkins' designs for Downing college, considered the first example of the style, date from the year of his Antiquities of Magna Graecia). It was probably assembled by Christopher Turnor for his library at Stoke Rochford, built for him by the Scottish architect William Burn, who was a student of Smirke, and whose Grecian Camperdown House was inspired in part by William Wilkins's Grange Park. The binding was probably commissioned by Turnor from John Wright (d. 1854), who enjoyed the patronage of many 19th-century bibliophiles and is described by Ramsden as 'a binder of the highest order' (London Book Binders 1780-1840, p. 154); for another work from Turnor's library bound by Wright, see lot 71. (13)
