"THE CORNERSTONE OF ANY COLLECTION OF COLOR-PLATE BOOKS": ACKERMANN'S FAMOUS MICROCOSM OF LONDON, 1808-10, WITH 104 BEAUTIFUL HAND-COLORED FOLIO AQUATINTS

(LONDON) (ACKERMANN, Rudolph) (PUGIN, Augustus Charles and ROWLANDSON, Thomas) [PYNE, William Henry and COMBE, William]. The Microcosm of London. London: T. Bensley, 1808-10. Three volumes. Folio, 19th-century full diced brown calf gilt, rebacked with original elaborately gilt-decorated spines laid down, raised bands, all edges gilt. Housed in custom slipcases. $11,500.

First edition in book form 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, many plates in their earliest states, handsomely bound by Charles Hering in elaborately gilt-decorated calf.

"The Microcosm of London is one of the great color-plate books, and a carefully selected copy should form the cornerstone of any collection of books on this subject" (Tooley, 22). In the history of book production "there is no more attractive figure than that of Rudolph Ackermann, through whose extraordinary enterprise and spirit of adventure, aquatint was successfully applied to the illustration of books… [The Microcosm] is a perfect treasure-house of scenes, described with pen and brush, from the London of [two centuries] ago, the work of Rowlandson and Pugin being equally admirable… Two-thirds of the places illustrated have entirely passed away" (Prideaux). These 104 beautiful hand-colored aquatints were pulled and hand-colored in the Ackermann studio. The drawings for the plates were the joint efforts of Augustus Charles Pugin, who produced the architectural settings, and Thomas Rowlandson, who added the human figures. Pugin had learned aquatinting from Merigot and through his association with John Nash had also developed "an accuracy and knowledge of Gothic architecture [that was] influential in establishing a purer appreciation of the style" (Houfe, 266). Yet, "it is Rowlandson's artfully disposed figures, often shown by the hundred, that bring Pugin's spacious exteriors and interiors to life. No graphic artist has surpassed Rowlandson in presenting the patterned activity of day-to-day communal existence" (Ray, 27). His people "catch the spirit of Regency England in a lively blend of sentiment, realism, local atmosphere and occasional unexpected delicacy of feeling or character" (Harthan, 176). "Original impressions of these splendid plates have a luminous quality entirely absent from later printings" (Abbey, 138). The texts of Volumes I and II are by William Henry Pyne, who became "enamoured of book production" when he undertook his earlier History of the Royal Residences (1819), and Volume III is by William Combe, author of the famous "Dr. Syntax" series (1812-21), also illustrated by Rowlandson and published by Ackermann.

"Of the 60 or 70 copies I have examined… not one has been in the first state throughout" (Tooley)—this copy, however, comes quite close. The pages and plates are watermarked within the years of publication with dates ranging from 1805 through 1808, the Volume I title page is in the first state (with the comma after Bensley in the imprint and "Volume I" printed, rather than a Volume III title page altered by the publisher when they ran out of Volume I title pages: see Abbey, 139), the Volume I contents leaf is labeled "Contents" only as called for, and the errata are completely uncorrected (a condition Abbey describes as "rare" and designating that the book has been bound from original parts). In nearly all copies of the Microcosm, some plates have been reworked: here, Plates 1, 5, 8 through 11, 17 and 18 are Tooley's state a; plates 3, 4, 21, 28 and 39 are Tooley's state b; and Plate 91 is Tooley's state c, as almost always (Tooley does not differentiate states among the remaining plates). Plate 12 falls between Tooley's and Abbey's criteria, with the figures clearly delineated but the notice lettering partially obscured. Plates 28-30 are misnumbered (two are numbered 29) and Plate 85 is marked "Second." Plates 89 and 101 are present but bound out of sequence, as usually found. Originally issued in 26 monthly installments in Ackermann's Poetical Magazine (see Hodnett, 104). Bound without half titles. Abbey, Scenery 212. Tooley 7. Ray 33. Prideaux, 120-23. Armorial bookplates in Volumes II and III; traces of offsetting from absent bookplate in volume I.

Occasional light foxing, light to moderate offsetting around plates; mild rubbing to spines, one spine band with small chip. A lovely copy, showcasing the fine hand-coloring and delicate wash shading characteristic of early issues.