September 2020 Catalogue

4 Europe & The British Isles September 2020 “The Cornerstone Of Any Collection Of Color-Plate Books” (Tooley) 2. (ACKERMANN, Rudolph) PYNE, William Henry and COMBE, William. The Microcosm of London. London, 1808-10. Three volumes. Folio, 20th-century three-quarter crimson morocco rebacked with original spines laid down. $15,500. Click for more info First edition in book form, later issue, of this splendid visual “treasure-house” of Regency London life, Ackermann’s first and most famous color-plate book, with three wood-engraved title pages, three copper-engraved dedication leaves and 104 magnificent hand-colored aquatint plates after Rowlandson and Pugin. A handsome wide-margined copy. “ The Microcosm of London is one of the great color-plate books” (Tooley, 22). “Of the 60 or 70 copies I have examined… not one has been in the first state throughout” (Tooley)—this copy is mixed state, as almost always found; the text bears watermarks dated 1807 and 1818, and the plates bear Whatman watermarks dated 1816 and 1831. Text and plates generally quite clean and fine, hand-coloring vivid. Only a few minor scuffs to bindings. A handsome copy.