PENNANT, Thomas.

£1,750 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Some Account of London, Westminster, and Southwark: First edition thus, one of 175 quarto copies, published expressly for extra-illustration: the publisher retailed a wide array of plates separately, from which purchasers could choose. All copies are consequently unique - this copy has a suite of 225 plates showing London's buildings and great personages.As a Welshman, Pennant brought an outsider's eye to London, but he travelled there often enough to write from firsthand knowledge and with his characteristic dry wit. The work was first published in 1790 as a single quarto volume with 12 plates; this was its sixth edition. Extra-illustration was then in great vogue and this title was already a favourite among practitioners. Jeffery seized the opportunity: in his advertisement he noted that it was printed "for the purchasers who choose to amuse themselves in the pursuit of illustrating; and an assortment of some hundreds of portraits, views, medals, and historical prints, may be had, together or separate, at the Publisher's". The edition also included 25 copies in folio.

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