Landmark Books in All Fields
ItemID: #114088
Cost: $7,200.00

History of the University of Oxford

Rudolph Ackermann

ACKERMANN'S SPLENDIDLY ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF OXFORD

ACKERMANN, Rudolph. A History of the University of Oxford, Its Colleges, Halls and Public Buildings. London: for R. Ackermann, 1814. Two volumes. Folio (12 by 14 inches), 19th-century full brown morocco calf-gilt rebacked in brown morocco, all edges gilt. $7200.

First edition of this illustrated history of Oxford University, with 82 superb hand-colored aquatint plates, in handsome leather-gilt.

The celebrated fine-arts publisher's magisterial history of one of academia's most venerable institutions boasts a stipple-engraved portrait of Chancellor Grenville and 82 hand-colored plates (the 17 Costume plates are line- and stipple-engraved), after Pugin, Westall, Mackenzie, Nash, Turner and Reynolds. "The fine aquatints, with their somewhat old-world flavor, are well suited to reproduce the spirit and to recall the antique associations of the old quads and courts" (Prideaux). First state of the list of plates (without the Founders). Most plates in second state, watermarked 1812. Without the plates of the founders, issued separately. Abbey, Scenery, 280. Tooley 5. A couple minor pencil notations about plate locations.

Plates generally bright and lovely, offsetting from plates to facing pages, just a bit of mainly marginal staining to interior including a few plates, mild wear to bindings. A beautiful copy.

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