WITH 24 STEEL ENGRAVED PLATES OF VIEWS OF THE BRITISH ISLES

[TAYLOR, Bayard, editor]. Picturesque Europe. The British Isles. With Illustrations on Steel and Wood by the Most Eminent Artists. London: Cassell, Petter, Galpin, & Co., [1876-79]. Two volumes. Large quarto, original full red morocco gilt, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spines and covers, all edges gilt; housed in original publisher's clamshell boxes. $1700.

First English edition of this elegant depiction of places of interest in the British isles, splendidly illustrated with two engraved title pages, 24 full-page steel engravings and many in-text wood-engravings, beautifully bound.

Editor Bayard Taylor was a born traveller. His first trip to Europe in 1844, graphic accounts of which he sent to The New York Tribune, The Saturday Evening Post, and The United States Gazette, resulted in a book, Views Afoot (1846), which enjoyed considerable popularity and established its author as a recognized authority on travel. Originally issued in parts, these two volumes are the first volumes of his Picturesque Europe and constitute the complete parts on the British isles. Preceded by the three-volume New York edition published by Appleton in 1875-76, with the same text, plates and in-text illustrations.

Books fine, with plates crisp and clean and binding beautiful; rare publisher's original boxes with expert repairs. A beautiful copy.