Beschreibung:

Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, 1851. Official descriptive and illustrated Catalogue. London: W. Clowes and Sons for Spicer Brothers, 1851. -- [ With :] Reports by the Juries on the subjects in the thirty classes into which the exhibition was divided. London: Spicer Brothers, 1852. 5 volumes, 8 o. Engraved folding map, engraved additional title by M. Jackson after J. Tenniel and numerous illustrations on plates and in text, a few colored (a few gatherings becoming loose, first 20 leaves of vol. 3 and some other leaves with short marginal tears). Contemporary gilt-decorated cloth by Remnant and Edmonds, gilt edges (joints split, some wear and dust soiling). FIRST EDITION, including the revised edition of the first volume and the fourth volume with the supplement to volume 3 and the first and second report of the commissioners for the exhibition of 1851. The desire to issue the official catalogue before the exhibition closed led to the omission of many illustrations and descriptions of items whose manufacturers had been slow in commissioning illustrations or had not realised the importance of the catalogue as a form of advertisement. It was thus decided to publish this corrected volume, and readers were invited to bring the earlier volume back, and receive this one. The idea of an international exhibition was first proposed by Prince Albert in 1849, and the material prosperity of the mid-nineteenth century was demonstrated by the Great Exhibition of 1851. Thousands of exhibits were divided into thirty classes and classified under four main categories: raw materials, machinery, manufactures, and fine arts. The exhibition was a huge success with over 14,000 exhibitors of which 7,000 were foreign or colonial. The attendance was over six million. (5)