Lot 274: HAKEWILL, JAMES

A Picturesque Tour of the Island of Jamaica. London: Hurst and Robinson, 1825

Folio (12 3/4 x 9 in.; 324 x 229 mm). 21 handcolored engraved plates by Cartwright, Clarke, Egerton, Fielding, and Sutherland after Hakewill; title-page slightly soiled, faint text offsetting to Kingston, Port Royal plate, minor staining to bottom margin of Cardiff Hall plate, lacks leaf on the conditions of Blacks. Contemporary purple cloth, blue paper spine label printed gilt; extremities faced to brown, label cracked and rubbed.

Abbey, Travel 683; Sabin 29591; Tooley 240

First edition. "A charming colour plate book that has become quite scarce and valuable" (Tooley). Hakewill's views of Jamaica were issued seven parts between 1824 and 1825. According to Abbey, part 2 included the very rare leaf about the conditions of Blacks on smaller paper stock (not present). The introduction incorporates Hakewill's interesting observations about race relations and the practice of slavery on the island. The text and plates are watermarked J. Whatman | Turkey Mills and variously dated 1821, 1823, and 1825 with one exception: the plate of the Bridge over White River is watermarked 1832, which must be a missetting of the wires on the mold, as there is no indication that the work was ever reissued. A fine, bright copy.