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Engraved titlepage by William Barker with vignette of the arms of Philadelphia, engraved plan of the city by Barker, twenty- seven handcolored copper engravings by and after William and Thomas Birch, letterpress list of subscribers, letterpress leaf of introduction with list of plates. Large oblong folio. Contemporary half mottled sheep and plain paper-covered boards. Moderate scuffing and soiling to boards, corners and spine ends worn, paper along bottom edge of boards a bit chipped. Repaired vertical tear on verso near gutter of "Frontispiece" plate, long horizontal repaired tear on verso of "Preparation for War" plate extending about 1 1/2 inches into image area, minor repaired marginal tears to verso of four other plates. Scattered foxing and minor toning, leaf of introduction heavily foxed and with a repaired horizontal tear just touching two words. Overall, good plus. In a brown half calf and cloth box, spine gilt, gilt leather label on front cover. The first edition of the first, and one of the most important, of all American color plate books. William Russell Birch, who conceived this splendid celebration of the city of Philadelphia, then the largest city in the United States, was a native of England. When he arrived in America in 1794 at the age of thirty-nine, he brought with him a strong academic training in art with no less a master than Sir Joshua Reynolds. His talent and all his creative skills were put to good use in his adopted city, where he founded an engraving firm. Birch hoped that his carefully planned and executed portfolio would serve as an advertisement "by which an idea of the improvements of the country could be conveyed to Europe, to promote and encourage settlers to the establishment of trade and commerce." Birch's idea was to present a series of plates which would illustrate notable buildings and characteristic scenes in his adopted city. From the beginning, he worked assiduously on the project he assigned himself, often rejecting drawings or reworking the copper plates when the printed impressions did not satisfy him. For the subject matter, there was no aspect of Philadelphia or of the vitality of its streets that he did not sweep into his embrace: the harbor; the grid plan of the streets; the ships and cargo that came into the port; the elegance of the buildings, public and private; the residents, poor and rich alike; the fashions worn by the fashionable; the ethnic minorities; markets and the produce sold in them; varying types of transportation, including coaches, wagons, mounts, and the omnipresent wheelbarrow; a funeral procession; a military drill; a colorful troop of native Americans visiting the city; lamp posts, sentry boxes, fences, gateposts; and, everywhere, Philadelphians attending to business, labor, or leisure. It is an ambitious urban portrait, full of affection for a city that the artist adopted as his own at a time when it was at a peak of development and enjoying distinction as the temporary seat of the federal government. The work was published by subscription, with about one hundred fifty original subscribers paying the then very large sum of $44.50 for bound and colored copies. This copy is especially appealing for its contemporary binding. It is also notable because all but one of the plates is present in the first or only state in which they were published. The only exception is the plate, entitled "High Street, from the Country Market-place Philadelphia: with the Procession in Commemoration of the Death of General George Washington, December 26th. 1799," here present in its second state, produced in 1800. This plate was originally produced in 1798, but the scene "was reworked on the same plate in order to remove certain errors of perspective and to show the procession commemorating the death of General Washington in December, 1799" (Snyder). Copies of both the first state (1798) and the second state (1800, present here) appear in copies of the first edition of Birch's Phi. Seller Inventory # WRCAM56272
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