WESTMONASTERIUM: OR THE HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF THE ABBEY CHURCH OF ST PETERS WESTMINSTER. Containing an Account of its ancient and modern Building Endowments Chapels Altars Reliques Customs Privileges Forms of Government...

Two Folio Volumes. Filled with plates illustrating the funeral monuments of Westminster Abbey as they appeared before being subjected to the damage of the last 300 years. 

LONDON: Printed & sold by James Cole engraver in Hatton Garden, Joseph Smith print seller in Exeter Exchange, Tho. Bowles print seller in St. Paul's Church Yard, Jer. Batley book seller in Paternoster Row, Tho. Taylor print seller in Fleet Street, John Bowles print seller over against Socks-Market, and by Andrew Johnstone in Round-Court in y Strand, [1723 - 1727]. First Edition.

Hardcovers, leather covered boards, 10x16 inches (26x40 cm). Pagination: 

VOLUME I: [2] blank front leaves, [1] frontispiece engraving, [1] title page, [2] Dedication, [2] Preface, [5] Coats of Arms of Subscribers, [1] engraved portrait of the author John Dart, XLII Westminster Abbey a Poem, IV List of Subscribers Names, 195 pp., [1] Errata, [1] blank leaf.

VOLUME I ILLUSTRATIONS: Frontispiece + 70 plates. All the plates are printed on one side only. The volume also has some engraved headpieces, tailpieces, vignettes, and initials.

VOLUME II: [2] blank front leaves, [1] fold-open frontispiece, [1] title page, [1] subscribers names, [2] subscribers coats of arms, 146 pp., [4] Names of Persons buried in this Church, XLIV Lives of the Abbats of Westminster, 24 pp. History of St. Peter's, XVI Appendix, [1] blank rear endpaper.

VOLUME II ILLUSTRATIONS: Frontispiece + 63  Plates. All the plates are printed on one side only. The volume also has some engraved headpieces, tailpieces, vignettes, and initials.

CONDITION: The pages and plates of both volumes are all present and suitable for rebinding, but the bindings are in poor condition and the books need to be rebound. The books are split into many sections. There are many loose signatures, pages, etc. The front and rear boards are original and present but worn with peeling leather. The spines have split at numerous places and are in disrepair, and their leather coverings are chipping and flaking easily. The front and rear boards could be used in a rebinding with a new backing.

VOLUME I Condition of Pages and Plates: The first and last few pages are edge worn, soiled and have some spotting, as do some pages here and there. The gutter edge of many pages of this volume have browned because clear tape (that browned with age) was applied to that edge to try and keep the pages bound in, some old tape still remains in many places, and there are brown tape ghosts on the blank endpapers and pastedowns. There is toning and foxing mainly to the pages facing the plates and the blank verso of the plates and to the first and last few pages, but some here and there throughout as well. Some (perhaps 1/4) of the plates have browned, and have dark areas in the margins. (Perhaps smoke damage from long ago? But no smoke smell, just the nice old paper.) A few of the plates and the pages facing them are heavily foxed. Despite the flaws to some of the plates, all the plates present, and are quite rare. 

VOLUME II Condition of Pages and Plates: The pages and plates of this volume are in pretty good condition. The first and last few pages have some tape and/or tape browning at the left edge but otherwise there is very little tape; there is a bit of foxing throughout but nothing significant on the pages or plates; there is no browning of the plates or dark areas in the margins; as in Volume I there is offsetting, some spotting and soiling, and edgewear to the first and last few pages. The fold-open frontispiece is splitting at the bottom of the fold, has some old tape repair on the backside, is toning and has some shorelining on the gutter margin. There is a pagination error following page 99, the facing blank backside of the subsequent plate is counted as a page. I have collated this book page by page with a digitized copy of a major English University and all is present. Though many sections, signatures, and pages are loose, the volume is complete with all its plates, and the pages and plates are bright and clear. The book needs rebinding but the pages are quite nice.

There is a large old signature and inscription dated 1782 on a blank prelim of each volume and a very small one at the top of the title pages: "Given to me this day by my Mother / (?) Stephenson Junior / 10th April 1782". Who will you pass it on to?

These almost 300 year old books are complete with all their pages and 133 plates. Despite the flaws these books are well deserving of preservation.