MEXICO ILLUSTRATED, WITH DESCRIPTIVE LETTER- PRESS, IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH

Phillips, John

Published by E. Atchley, Library of Fine Arts, London, 1848

Letterpress titlepage, tinted lithographic additional titlepage and twenty-five tinted lithographic plates, printed by Day & Son, after Rider, Phillips, and others, each with an accompanying page of descriptive text in Spanish and English. Large folio. Publisher's three-quarter red morocco and red moiré cloth, spine and boards gilt, front board with gilt-stamped title and Mexican eagle; expertly rebacked with original leather and rehinged in order to comfortably lie flat. Cloth a bit soiled, leather worn along lower joints. Light scattered foxing, a few expert repairs to text leaves, not touching text. Plates very clean. A very good copy. A beautiful copy, here with lovely hand- coloring, of this fine and rare series of views, published almost concurrently with the end of the Mexican-American War. The work was clearly published both as a purely topographical work of the highest quality and as an attempt to capitalize on the interest that the war had generated in England as well as the United States. The plates derive from a fascinating number of sources, ranging from straight-forward eyewitness records by both John Phillips and Alfred Rider, to an adaptation of a 17th- century engraving first published by Arnoldus Montanus, to a number of views taken from the earlier work of Carl Nebel and Pedro Gualdi. The full details can be read in Roberto Mayer's article in the ANNALES DEL INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES ESTETICAS. Of the group, a handful of plates display a direct connection to the War: the view of Vera Cruz (after an original painting by Rider) is accompanied by text which refers to Gen. Scott's siege and bombardment of the city (March 7 to 29, 1847); the view of Rio Frio includes the Mexican army in line of march; the plate of Chapultepec, which shows a column of troops and is accompanied by text which describes both the "brave defense" of the Mexican army and "irresistible gallantry of the American troops;" and the final plate of Matamoros includes a number of vessels flying the United States flag along with a note in the accompanying text which recalls the opening gambit of the war when the United States forces were ordered by President Polk to advance to the Rio Grande in January 1846. At that time, U.S. forces established a depot at Point Ysabel, and erected a fort in Texan territory commanding Matamoros, on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. There are a number of fine views of Mexico City and its surroundings, but no mention is made of the final act of the war when Gen. Scott marched on the capital, stormed its defenses against greatly superior forces, and entered the city after severe fighting on September 13, 1847. A peace treaty was finally signed on February 2, 1848 in which Mexico ceded Texas, New Mexico, and Upper California to the United States in return for $15,000,000. The main thrust of the work is to offer a fine topographical overview of the country. The order of the plates leads the viewer on a tour of the country starting at Campeche on the southern rim of the Gulf of Mexico, along the coast to Vera Cruz, turning inland to Mexico City via Jalapa, Orizaba, and Puebla. After some time spent in the capital and its environs, the tour turns north up through the center of the country to San Luis Potosi and Monterey before finally heading east and returning to the Gulf at the mouth of the Rio Grande at Matamoros. The lithographs are the work of Day & Son, "Lithographers to the Queen." Day & Son was the foremost lithography firm in Britain for much of the 19th century, and continued in various forms until 1940. A handsome copy of this significant book of plates, with beautiful handcoloring and recased in order to lie flat for display. ABBEY 671. SABIN 62498. PALAU 224780. ALBERICH 1500. "Phillips, Rider y su album Mexico Illustrated Quienes fueron los autores de los dibujos originales?" in ANNALES DEL INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES ESTETICAS (2000) 76, pp.291-306. Seller Inventory # WRCAM57546

Bibliographic Details

Title: MEXICO ILLUSTRATED, WITH DESCRIPTIVE LETTER-...
Publisher: E. Atchley, Library of Fine Arts, London
Publication Date: 1848