LARGE 48-INCH FOLDING PANORAMA OF BOSTON FROM BUNKER HILL

(BOSTON) SMILLE, James D., engraver. A Panoramic View from Bunker Hill Monument [cover title]. Boston: Luther Stevens, circa 1856. Small quarto, contemporary half cloth, original printed green paper boards; folding panorama measuring 8-1/2 by 48 inches tipped to rear pastedown; pp. [1], 16. $600.

Large folding wood-engraved panoramic view of Boston from Bunker Hill Monument by R.P. Mallory, engraved by James Smillie, with 160 buildings and locations identified in the key, with steel-engraved "View of Bunker Hill Monument" as frontispiece to the explanatory text, in original printed paper boards.

The first major battle of the American Revolution, the June 17, 1777 Battle of Bunker Hill, saw the revolutionaries defeated; however, their "skill and tenacity reassured colonists everywhere that the Revolution would not be strangled in its cradle" (Oxford Companion to United States Military History). The battle actually took place on Breed's Hill, the site of the existing Bunker Hill Monument. Engraver James Smillie, 1807-85, "was outstanding among engravers of landscape" (DAB). This large 8-1/2 by 48-inch wood-engraving, first published in 1848 by Redding & Co. in Boston, was produced to accompany Samuel Drake's 1856 The History and Antiquities of Boston. Some early owner signatures to endpapers and first page of text.

Text block rehinged. A few small ink smudges to front board. Repair to one fold of panorama on verso. A very good copy.