Beschreibung:

PYNE, William Henry (1769-1843). The History of the Royal Residences . London: L. Harrison for A. Dry, 1819. 3 volumes, large 4° (402 x 314mm). 100 hand-coloured aquatint plates by T. Sutherland, R. Reeve, W.J. Bennett, D. Havell and J. Baily after C. Wild (59), J. Stephanoff (25), R. Cattermole (9), W. Westall (6), and G. Samuel (1). (Intermittent amd mainly marginal spotting of plates, occasional thumb-soiling, plate 92 in volume III window-mounted and presumably supplied from a smaller copy, plate 95 slightly miscut at lower margin, light browning of text, lacking all the sectional titles and the rearrangement slip at end of vol. III.) Contemporary green morocco, covers tooled in gilt and blind, smooth gilt spines with strapwork pattern, gilt edges (joints rubbed, corners bumped, upper cover of vol. III slightly discoloured). Provenance : Stowe Library. LARGE-PAPER COPY on thick paper. This celebrated work was the first to illustrate royal palaces and houses in any detail, and the most ambitious aquatint book to be published on English interiors. Volume I is a valuable record of the state rooms in Windsor Castle formed for Charles II, but concludes with lighter, more domestic scenes of Frogmore, purchased by Queen Charlotte as a country retreat in 1793. Volume II is devoted to Hampton Court, whose state rooms had fallen into disuse for almost 60 years, Buckingham Palace, which had been bought for the Queen for £28,000 shortly after her marriage to George III, and Kensington Palace, constructed for William III but so neglected by 1814 that the Duke of Kent complained of 'rain pouring through the ceiling at twenty different points' and of being 'literally perishing with cold in my library.' St. James's Palace and Carlton House form the subject of the final volume, and while the former had been badly burned in 1809, the 20 plates devoted to the Prince Regent's residence show what were regarded as the most spectacular interiors in regency London. Abbey Scenery 396; Tooley 389. (3)