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ItemID: #115080
Cost: $6,500.00

Sketches of the Country, Character, and Costume, in Portugal and Spain

William Bradford

BRADFORD'S SKETCHES OF THE COUNTRY, CHARACTER, AND COSTUME IN PORTUGAL AND SPAIN, 1809, WITH 53 BEAUTIFUL FOLIO HAND-COLORED PLATES

(SPAIN) (PORTUGAL) (NAPOLEONIC WARS) BRADFORD, William. Sketches of the Country, Character, And Costume, in Portugal And Spain, Made during the Campaign, and on the Route of the British Army, in 1808 and 1809. London: John Booth, 1809. Large folio (11-1/2 by 16 inches), early marbled boards rebacked and recornered in dark brown calf, raised bands, uncut. $6500.

First edition, first issue, illustrated with 53 full-page hand-colored engraved folio plates, including 40 plates of scenic views of Portugal and Spain along with examples of native costume, and a supplement of 13 plates of the military uniforms of the Spanish, Portuguese, and French armies.

William Bradford was the Chaplain to the British Army during the Peninsular War, England's foray into Iberia on the side of Spain and Portugal, a central campaign of the Napoleonic Wars. First published in 1809-10 in 24 separate parts, and then again in 1810 in book form (see Abbey, Travel 135), this first issue features plates watermarked 1807 to 1809. The supplemental suite of 13 plates of military costumes always accompanies the work. With uncolored frontispiece of "The Monument to Sir John Moore," not always present. Abbey Travel 135. Tooley 109. Owner pencil inscription on upper margin of title page.

Plates and text clean and fine, with only a bit of foxing to uncolored engraved frontispiece. Hand-coloring vivid, attractively bound. An excellent, large, uncut copy of this lovely illustrated work.

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