From William Reese Company - Americana, New Haven, CT, U.S.A.
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AbeBooks Seller since 13 July 2006
About this Item
[42] leaves, including an extra engraved titlepage, acknowledgements/directions to binder leaf, and two leaves of subscribers' names, plus twenty-eight fine engraved plates, as issued (with blank guards) and twenty-four variant or later plates laid in. Folio. Modern half red calf and late 19th- century marbled boards, spine gilt, t.e.g. Light shelf wear. Minor foxing. Engraved titlepage trimmed and mounted. Very good. Foredge and lower edge untrimmed. In a cloth chemise and half morocco and cloth slipcase, spine gilt. A handsome large-paper copy of this quite early example of American lithography, and one of the nicest series of city views produced in the 19th century. The work itself, originally issued in six parts, each with four plates, features engravings of prominent churches, the state house, the Bank of Pennsylvania, the University of Pennsylvania, the United States Mint, and the Academy of Natural Sciences, among other important buildings. A plan of the Eastern Penitentiary was also included in the fifth part, calling for twenty-five plates in a complete copy. The present copy is extra-illustrated with an additional twenty-four plates laid in, being additional copies of Childs's plates, or later versions of the plates produced for other publications. This allows for a side- by-side comparison of many of Childs's views with later versions of his images, and an examination of changes made to the views over the years. In his MIRROR OF AMERICA, Martin Snyder describes the order of the plates in bound copies as "erratic." The bound order of the plates in this copy is as follows: 1) "Philadelphia from Kensington." 2) "Swedish Lutheran Church." 3) "Christ Church." 4) "Friends Meeting House Merion." 5) "Saints Stephens Church." 6) "First Congregational Unitarian Church." 7) "State House or Hall of Independence." 8) "Fair Mount Water Works. From the West Bank of the Schuylkill." 9) "Fair Mount Water-works. From the Reservoir." 10) "Bank of the United States." 11) "Bank of Pennsylvania." 12) "Girard's Bank." 13) "Pennsylvania Hospital." 14) "Pennsylvania Hospital." 15) "Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Department for Males." 16) "Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Department for Females." 17) "Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb." 18) "University." 19) "Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts." 20) "Eastern Penitentiary." 21) "Plan of the Eastern Penitentiary." 22) "United States Mint." 23) "Widows and Orphans Asylum." 24) "View on the Schuylkill. From the Old Water Works." 25) "Schuylkill Canal at Manayunk." 26) "Eaglesfield." 27) "Sedgeley Park." 28) "Academy of Natural Sciences." A very nice copy of the large-paper edition of Childs' wonderful view book of Philadelphia, with an additional twenty-four versions of the plates laid in. HOWES C383, "aa." DECKER 48:241. DAB VII, pp.467-68. SABIN 12731. SNYDER, MIRROR OF AMERICA, pp.70-77. Seller Inventory # WRCAM54773
Bibliographic Details
Title: VIEWS IN PHILADELPHIA, AND ITS VICINITY; ...
Publisher: Published by C.G. Childs, Engraver, Philadelphia
Publication Date: 1830
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