The Microcosm of London; or, London in miniature.

£5,750 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

with letter from Augustus Welby Pugin This is a splendid work, with the preferred pre-publication watermarks, exhibiting a depth and richness of colouring. The Microcosm offers an incomparable panorama of Regency London both high and low, from sedate drawing rooms to the brawling and boozing street life of the metropolis, captured in matchless hand-coloured aquatint by the inspired pairing of Pugin and Rowlandson. Most of the plates are in their first or second state, with plate 12 and 39 in the rare first state. With an autograph letter by Augustus Welby Pugin (1812-1852), pioneer of the Gothic Revival architecture movement, to, probably, Thomas Talbot Bury (1809-1877), his long time friend and collaborator, dated 1839. The letter describes a drawing Pugin made of Macclesfield Church (St Michael and All Angels), including directions to Bury for his engraving of the image, and is adorned with small sketches of the altar candles and statues. It was Augustus Welby's father, Augustus Charles, who produced the architectural drawings of this work and was the reason Augustus Welby and Bury were so intimate, having apprenticed his son and Bury together. 'Ackermann's The Microcosm of London... is a book of major importance. The architectural drawings were by Augustus Charles Pugin, a French refugee who came to London in about 1798, "driven from his country either by the horrors of the French Revolution or by private reasons connected with a duel" [...] His lasting fame rests on his c

• Printing: first
• Binding: Hardcover

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