Thomas Shepherd Metropolitan Improvements Or London In The Nineteenth Century

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Metropolitan Improvements
Or,
London
In The Nineteenth Century
 Being A Series Of Views Of The New And Most Interesting Objects In The British Metropolis & Its Vicinity From Original Drawings
By Thomas H. Shepherd
With Historical, Topographical & Critical Illus.
By James Elmes
 

Hardcover. 4to. Published by Jones & Co, Acton Place, Kingland Road, London, UK. 1827. vi, 172 pgs. Illustrated with 158 views on 79 sheets, full-page plan, all steel-engraved after Shepherd, on china paper mounted , protected by tissue guards. Some tissue guards are missing

Bound in plain purple cloth boards with titles present to the spine. Boards have shelf-wear present to the extremities (spine is faded and worn). Previous owner's bookplate present. Light foxing present with a some wrinkling present to the pages. Text is free of marks. Binding tight and solid.

A celebration of Regency and Adams classicism, although there is a little bit of every style and type of building then standing in London. A superb tour guide into bygone London.

Thomas Hosmer Shepherd was probably the son of the topographical watercolour artist George Shepherd (fl. 1800-1830) and therefore the brother of George Sidney Shepherd (d.1858), who also executed numerous first class topographical works. T.H. Shepherd "painted exclusively views of streets and old buildings in London and other cities, which he executed with great truth and accuracy. He drew the whole of the illustrations for the following topographical works: Metropolitan Improvements, or London in the Nineteenth Century, 1827; London and its Environs in the Nineteenth Century, 1829; Modern Athens displayed, or Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century, 1829; Views of Bath and Bristol, 1829-31; London Interiors, with their Costumes and Ceremonies, 1841-3; and A Picturesque Tour on the Regent's Canal. Shepherd was largely employed by Frederick Crace in making watercolour views of old buildings in London previous to their demolition, and some hundreds of these are in the Crace collection in the British Museum."