Paris and Its Environs Displayed in a Series of Picturesque Views. The drawings made under the supervision of Mr. Pugin and engraved and the superintendence of Mr. C. Heath. With topographical and historical descriptions. Complete in two volumes. Published 1829-1831 by Jennings and Chaplin in London. First edition. Bound in beautiful 1/4 polished rich brown calf over intricately blind stamped patterned cloth. Single fillets in blind. Four thick, raised, and gilt decorated spine bands with gilt lettered burgundy morocco labels. All edges marbled. 200 steel engravings on 100 plates with tissue guards facing unpaginated textual description in both English and French, and 2 vignette engraved titles. Quarto, 10.75” x 8.25”

***OTHER COPIES in fine binding and in similar condition SELL FOR up to $1,000 on rare book sites and $800 on eBay***

OVERALL CONDITION: VERY GOOD

ABOUT THE CHIEF EDITOR/SUPERVISOR:

Augustus Charles Pugin (born Auguste-Charles Pugin; 1762 – 19 December 1832) was an Anglo-French artist, architectural draughtsman, and writer on medieval architecture. He was born in Paris, then in the Kingdom of France, but his father was Swiss, and Pugin himself was to spend most of his life in England.

Pugin left France during the Revolutionary period for unclear reasons about 1798 and later entered the Royal Academy Schools in London, England to improve his skills. Shortly afterwards he obtained a position as an architectural draughtsman with the architect John Nash. After considering and abandoning a career in architecture Pugin married and settled on a career as a commercial artist working primarily for publishers of illustrated books. He was a skilful watercolourist as well as an accomplished draftsman.

CONDITION DESCRIPTION:

Both volumes are in VERY GOOD antiquarian condition. Square spines with firm hinges and joints. Leather is supple, unfaded and colorful. Some soiling and staining to boards and light rubbing extremities. Corners bumped. Internal signs of handling - smudges on occasion and some folded and torn corners. Plates are clean and in good condition with some mild offsetting on occasion. Foxed pages, heaviest on and near tissue guards and toward the beginning and end of each volume. Light foxing in other areas. Rear pastedown of each volume with previous owner inscriptions, two in pencil and one in ink, the earliest dating back to publication in 1829 and the most recent to 1954.

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