Lot 147: TELFORD, Thomas (1757-1834). The Life of Thomas Telford. Edited by John Rickman. London:

TELFORD, Thomas (1757-1834). The Life of Thomas Telford. Edited by John Rickman. London: Payne and Foss, 1838.

2 volumes, text: 4° (272 x 211mm); atlas: 2° (558 x 412mm). Engraved portrait frontispiece and 82 plates and maps, as issued, some folding or double-page. (Dampstain on lower margins, dampstain on fore-margins of last few quires, spotting, primarily on first and last few quires, short tear in contents leaf.) Half-roan (text) and half-calf (atlas), edges marbled (atlas: rebacked, rubbed, soiled). Provenance: John Hawkshaw (stamp on title of atlas).

FIRST EDITION. Telford, one of the greatest of the 19th-century civil engineers, played a major role in the development of cast iron for bridge construction; many of his works were on a hitherto unprecedented scale. The plates illustrate all of Telford's major works, including: the magnificent Menai Strait and Conway suspension bridges, the Caledonian and Götha ship canals, the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction canal, and the Ellesmere Canal with its cast-iron aqueduct at Pont-y-cysyllte. The book was in preparation at Telford's death and was completed by his friend, John Rickman, who had been Secretary to the Caledonian Canal Commission.
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